Although I saw India A in action at Headingley just a few weeks ago I needed no persuasion when John Gawthrope suggested a trip to New Road on Wednesday to see the third day of their match with a strong England Lions XI. An early start saw us enjoying crispy bacon in Malvern before nine o'clock and parked up inside the ground before the cathedral clock had chimed ten.
The overnight position had India A making a good response to the Lions' big score of 423, an innings dominated by 180 from Alistair Cook. Rahane and Pant, who had pulled India round from 93 for 4, had few difficulties in the first hour against Fisher, Porter and Woakes but no sooner had we sampled the fare on offer in The Tom Graveney Lounge than Pant was bowled by Woakes at 189 for 5. An hour later and on the struck of lunch India A were all out for 197, six wickets for 8 runs, four of them to Curran (S), three of them leg before, all given the nod by umpire Blackwell.
In a match where more was at stake the follow on might have been enforced but after lunch it was India who took the field and Cook and Burns who opened the batting. No run glut for Cook this time, he went for 5, bowled by the impressive Siraj, and there were only 25 on the board when Gubbins went to the same bowler. Malan and Burns steadied things while we partook of lemon drizzle and Victoria sandwich cake in the Ladies' Pavilion which we were delighted to find open for a non championship match. Burns was next to go at 72/3 but the tempo picked up with the arrival of the very promising Pope at the crease.
Five o'clock saw us on our way but we had spent the day in delightful company including this fellow.
The colours are those of the Colonial Cavaliers CC, based in Boston Massachusetts, and currently touring this country, they had played at Bath the previous day. They play matches in their home state and in Vermont and Rhode Island. Home games are played at Harvard University.
After we left the Lions rattled along to declare just before six and leave India A an awkward few overs before stumps, overs in which they lost three wickets. They did manage to prolong the fourth day until mid afternoon but were all out for 167, well not quite all out for Rajpoot was unfit to bat. Defeat by 253 runs was the outcome.
I shall be retracing my tyre tracks tomorrow when my wife and I leave for a few days in Herefordshire. High on the agenda, well mine anyway is a trip to Cheltenham to see a day of Gloucestershire v Durham, the second match of the festival. Expect a report in about a week's time.
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