NAPIER: Career-best knocks by opener Manoj Prabhakar, teenager Sachin Tendulkar and vice-captain Kiran More saw India pile up 348 for seven at stumps on the third day of the second cricket test between India and New Zealand at the Maclean Park here on Feb 11.
With about eight hours play lost and the rain-marred test plodding to a draw, the day belonged to Prabhakar. His gutsy innings of 95 guided India to safety after it lost Captain Mohammad Azharuddin and Veteran Dilip Vengsarkar early on in the day, both falling to Danny Morrison. Prabhakar missed what would have been his maiden test century by just five runs, given out to a controversial LBW decision,
‘At stumps, Sachin Tendulkar was unbeaten with 80, on the verge of hitting a ton’. If he achieves the milestone, it would make him the youngest to hit a century in test cricket. Giving him company at the crease is another youngster, Venkatapathy Raju on two,
Prabhakar and Azharuddin resumed at the overnight 126 for two on a placid wicket. Facing few problems, the pair took the score to 150 and even before the applause died, Morrison clean bowled skip per Azharuddin for 33. Going for a drive, Azharuddin failed to reach the pitch of the ball and saw his stumps knocked back. His 33 came off 62 deliveries and contained three hits to the fence.
CHRISTCHURCH: India could not prevent from the inevitable taking place here Feb 3rd as they lost the first match of the three test series against New Zealand by 10 wickets with more than one and half days left.
Any hope of India sneaking out of the hopeless situation ended when two overnight unbeaten batsmen, W.V Raman (85) and Kapil Dev (4) presented their wickets through indiscreet shots.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 16, 1990
