Jadhav and Kaif shine in India A run-fest

India Seniors 213 and 35 for 0 need another 352 runs to beat India A 302 and 297 for 5 dec (Jadhav 113, Kaif 103*)
Scorecard

Fine centuries from Dheeraj Jadhav and Mohammad Kaif intensified the Seniors' gloom as India A set an imposing target of 387 on the penultimate day of the warm-up game at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore. Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, who could conceivably open against Australia next week, negotiated a tricky ten-over passage before stumps to ensure that the Seniors would need to score at a shade under four an over to win on the final day.

The day belonged, however, to Jadhav and Kaif. Jadhav, who averages a staggering 62.66 over a five-year first-class career, made an unbeaten 260 against Kenya less than a month ago, and he carried on in the same vein against the best bowlers in the country. Having driven Irfan Pathan with panache on his way to 27 overnight, he unveiled some superb punched drives through cover and some ferocious pulls when the bowlers pitched too short. He also used the sweep shot to great effect against the slow bowlers, helped by the fact that neither Harbhajan Singh nor Anil Kumble settled into any rhythm.

Jadhav and Kaif added 155 for the third wicket after Dinesh Mongia had departed early in the day, chasing a wide one from Siddharth Trivedi to put a full stop on any slim chance he may have had of making the Test squad. Kaif's was another composed knock, characterised by typically athletic scampering between the wickets and nudges all around the park. When he got to the 90s, an edge off Kumble fell just short of slip, but his century - reached when he tonked Sehwag straight back down the ground - was otherwise a polished effort that might just pitchfork him into the slot likely to be vacated by Sachin Tendulkar.

With the exception of Zaheer, who threatened sporadically, the bowling was desperately disappointing, lethargic and insipid enough to lull any watching Aussie into a sense of complacency. Kumble finally got Jadhav leg before, after he had stroked a confident 113, and then Mahendra Singh Dhoni (12) slogged one from Pathan to Harbhajan at deep square leg. Trivedi ended a brief cameo from yesterday's hero, Joginder Sharma, but the way Kaif and Venugopal Rao set about adding 44 for the sixth wicket, they could've batted through the day and killed off the match as a contest.

Instead, Mongia called his lads in, and then watched as Yuvraj and Sehwag set about trying to play themselves back into form. Yuvraj treated both Amit Bhandari and Shib Sankar Paul with disdain, crashing a couple of sumptuous off-drives and whipping one down to the midwicket fence. Up on the players' balcony, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid - padded up just in case disaster struck - watched, with the captain carefully sandpapering a new willow.

They were soon joined by Pranab Roy, one of two men to be retained as national selector. And while he and Ganguly had a chat, Sehwag uncorked two magnificent on-drives to suggest that a corner might have been turned. Sadly, that was followed moments later by an atrocious hoick at Murali Kartik that, fortunately for him, fell out of reach of Rao at forward short leg.

When he came back to the pavilion ten minutes later, Sehwag had the sort of beaming smile you normally associate with someone who ran into a ten-ton prop-forward and lived to tell the tale. Next to him, John Wright was shaking hands with Syed Kirmani, who had come to wish the team he had helped pick for the last one year the very best of luck. On this sort of showing, they might need it too.