Justin Bishop, the Essex left-armer, celebrated his 19th birthday with a two-wicket burst to keep England in the game against The Rest of India Under-19's. Bishop finished with 2-12, dismissing the opener, Das, caught in the slips, before inducing a top-edge from Mishra that was taken by Kadeer Ali at square-leg. The Rest of India team finished the first day on 47-2 in reply to England Under-19's 210.

Gary Pratt Photo Paul McGregor

England will be disappointed with their final total after a good start. With Sadler and Pratt adding a confident 72 for the first wicket, hopes were high in the England camp that a challenging total could be set. The departure of Pratt, just before lunch, for an attractive 78, left England on 134-4, and the afternoon session saw the Indian XI make further inroads, with off-spinner Dharmichand finishing with 5-65.

Though Ali, Wallace and Pattison all battled tenaciously, they could make little headway against the spinners.

England Coach Tim Boon expressed satisfaction with the form of Pratt, but admitted that the final score was some way short of that desired.

"I'm very happy with the way Gary's playing at the moment," he said. "He drove well and used his feet to the spinners. It was an inopportune moment to get out but hopefully he's saving his really big innings for the Test series.

"We would have liked 250 to 300 after the start we had but it was predictable that the spinners would come into their own on this pitch."

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