Close England 320 and 163 for 9 (Bangar 5-32) drew with the Board President's XI (339 for 7 dec, Sriram 149, Martin 89, Ball 3-89)
Scorecard Losing nine wickets in two sessions probably wasn't quite what Nasser Hussain had in mind. But Sanjay Bangar chugged in, took five wickets, and turned England's sleepy third-day batting practice into a scramble for pads.

No-one expected England to fall prey to the medium-pacers. It was the names Murali Kartik and Sarandeep Singh which had been hovering like nasty shadows around the team hotel. But it was the baggy-flannelled Bangar who did the damage.

Graham Thorpe chopped him on for 13 and then Hussain (slicing to gully for 38), White (caught behind for 4) and Jamie Foster (dragging on for 0), fell to his medium-pace charmers in a spell of 3 for 4 in seven balls.

Bangar couldn't have been happier. A fringe Indian player who can also open the batting, he is one of a fistful of possibles who could fill the blank opener's slot in the forthcoming series against England.

England, though, were rather put out. Their early-morning bowling fightback was planted firmly in the shade as only Hussain, Mark Ramprakash and the indomitable Martyn Ball made it past 20.

Ramprakash was again the batsman who looked most at ease. He glided onto the pitch with his white sunhat and to cheers from the crowd, whom he had already thrilled with a 15-minute autograph-session early in the afternoon. He swept Sarandeep Singh's first ball for six, and followed up with a four off his toes. Thorpe too played a couple of heartwarming shots – sweeping and hot-stepping down the pitch to Kartik.

It was Michael Vaughan you felt most sorry for. He had negotiated an opening spell from the tall Tinu Yohannan and was beginning to time the ball when Yohannan, as quick as you would expect from a son of the Indian long-jump record holder, brought one back. Vaughan was late on the shot and in a jiffy his stumps had gone for a burton. His scores this tour have been 2, 22 and 18 and the bell was tolling for his Test place.

The spectacular rearrangement of his woodwork recalled the morning session, when Matthew Hoggard destroyed Jacob Martin's stumps first thing, just after he and Sriram had taken their third-wicket partnership to 200.

In a peculiar reversal of fortune the Board XI lost five wickets for 83, compared to two for 256 yesterday. And it was the Gloucestershire gallivanter Ball who led England's revival. As jaunty as a dog on a walk, he bounded in from the Ghulam Mohammad end after Richard Dawson had bowled eight unfulfilled overs for 33.

Rohan Gavaskar came in, faced Ball, took one look at this short fat fellow, decided he was no match for the son of Sunil, and straight-drove him back over his head for four. But the very next delivery was tossed up that little bit higher, Gavaskar played his shot too soon and was very gently caught and Balled for 24.

This was the catalyst for a mini-collapse of four wickets for seven runs. Craig White, bowling off a slow trot, finally got rid of Sriram thanks to an acrobatic diving catch by Jamie Foster (315 for 4). He had made 149, off 289 balls and nudged the watching selectors very hard in their skinny ribs.

Bangar fell, lbw to Ball for 2 (318 for 6), and Pankaj Dharmani followed, lbw to White (322 for 7), a slightly dubious decision as the ball appeared to hit him just outside the line of off stump.

Murali Kartik and Sarandeep Singh added 17 together before Jacob Martin kindly declared at lunch to give England's batsmen another innings. A nice bit of batting practice was what they had in mind. But whoever said India was predictable?

Teams England 1 Mark Butcher, 2 Michael Vaughan, 3 Nasser Hussain (capt), 4 Graham Thorpe, 5 Mark Ramprakash, 6 Craig White, 7 James Foster (wk), 8 Martyn Ball, 9 James Ormond, 10 Richard Dawson, 11 Matthew Hoggard.

Board President's XI 1 S Sriram, 2 Wasim Jaffer, 3 Dinesh Mongia, 4 Jacob Martin (capt), 5 Rohan Gavaskar, 6 Pankaj Dharmani (wkt), 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Murali Kartik, 9 Sarandeep Singh, 10 Surendra Singh Bagal, 11 Tinu Yohannan.

Tanya Aldred, our assistant editor, is covering the whole tour for Wisden.com.

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