Ajinkya Rahane returns in style

MUMBAI: Ajinkya Rahane was enduring a rare lean patch before a finger injury during the Test series against England last month saw him miss the final two games.
On Thursday, the 28-year-old was back at the Cricket Club of India, leading India 'A' against England in the second warm-up game. He could not have asked for better preparation in the lead-up to the three-match one-day series that gets under way in Pune on Sunday.
Rahane struck 91 off 83 balls as the hosts surpassed the target of 283 with 62 balls to spare and won by six wickets.Rahane, who opened the innings with Sheldon Jackson, stitched together two significant partnerships 119 runs with Jackson (59; 56 balls, 7x4), followed by 78 runs with the swashbuckling Rishabh Pant - and ensured that the batsmen to follow had to just play percentage cricket in order to see the team through.
The Mumbai batsman exhibited his complete repertoire of strokes and looked pretty comfortable before he was done in by an attempted yorker by paceman David Willey in the 33rd over. His innings was laced with 10 boundaries and a six.
Rahane's success puts him in contention for a place in the XI as an opener for Sunday's game, and it will be interesting to see who among Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul and Rahane finds a place.
Rahane's innings notwithstanding, it was the young Rishabh Pant who had the crowd on its feet during his entertaining knock of 59 runs off only 36 balls. The 19-year-old was at his aggressive best in the 27th over, bowled by Jake Ball, when he struck three fours and topped it with a six to get to his half century.
He continued in the same vein in the next over, lifting spinner Adil Rashid for a six over mid on off the second ball, but perished the very next delivery when he was caught by Alex Hales at wide long on. The spectators lapped up every hit of Pant with glee, and will be surely keeping an eye out for him if he gets a chance to feature in the T20 games against the visitors. He was also in good form with the wicket-keeping gloves, pouching four catches.
The experienced Suresh Raina, who is on a comeback trail, too played some delightful strokes before falling for 45 off 34 deliveries.
Earlier, England, who were headed for a huge total, lost their way midway through the innings before a last-wicket partnership of 71 runs between Rashid (39*, 41b, 4x4) and David Willey (38; 30b, 2x6, 2x4) helped them post a fighting 282 in 48.5 over.
Jonny Bairstow emerged top-scorer with a 65-ball 64 while opener Alex Hales contributed 51. The visitors lost three wickets in a span of three runs, thanks to fast bowler Ashok Dinda's double strike and found themselves reduced to 1656 in 28.1 overs from a very comfortable position of 1623 just a couple of overs earlier. Off-spinner Parvez Rasool emerged the most successful bowler, taking 3-38 in 10 overs.