Day 2 close Guyana Board President's XI 118 (Harbhajan Singh 4-37) and 52 for 5 (Srinath 2-12, Kumble 2-5) are 78 runs behind the Indians 248 (Ganguly 52, Bangar 76*) Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble shared four wickets late on the second day to boost the Indian tourists' chances of winning their three-day match against the Guyana Board President's XI at the Everest ground in Georgetown.

Srinath, the experienced fast bowler, took 2 for 12 and Kumble 2 for 5 with his legspin as the President's XI, trailing by 130 runs on first innings, struggled to 52 for 5 – still 78 behind – at stumps on the second day of the Indians' only warm-up match before the Test series starts at Georgetown on April 11.

Srinath removed Andrew Gonsalves, the opener, and Narsingh Deonarine with successive balls in his fourth over, then Kumble struck twice in three overs to press home the advantage gained by Sanjay Bangar, who top-scored with 76.

Bangar, the allrounder and a relative newcomer to the Indian side, started cautiously before exploding with a flurry of big shots in the later part of his innings, hitting four sixes and six fours in his 210-minute stay.

The other Indian batsmen had struggled to seize the initiative against a disciplined attack from a side which is basically a Guyanese 2nd XI. The bowling stars were Hemnarine Harinarine, a left-arm spinner, and fast bowler Reon Griffith. Harinarine finished with 3 for 54 and Griffith 2 for 46 to deny the top order valuable batting practice.

Although Sourav Ganguly made 52, the Indians were reeling at 104 for 5 before Bangar pulled his team out of trouble. He put on 82 for the sixth wicket with VVS Laxman, who hit 43. They steadied the innings after Griffith had exposed the tourists' batting limitations against pace with two vital wickets.

Griffith, 23, dismissed master batsman Sachin Tendulkar for 18 and Rahul Dravid (2) in a fiery opening spell in which he conceded only seven runs in as many overs. He had taken only 10 wickets in his previous six first-class matches. By lunch the Indians, who had resumed at 73 for 2, had limped to 136 for 5 after losing three wickets in the space of 10 runs.

After Bangar and Laxman made the score look more respectable, the tail collapsed against the spin of Harinarine. Four wickets tumbled for 19 before Zaheer Khan (11) helped Bangar put on 43 runs for the last wicket.

It was just over 40 years ago that another paceman called Griffith had rocked the Indians in a tour game. His name: Charlie Griffith. His victim: Nari Contractor.

Teams
Guyana Board President's XI 1 Travis Dowlin (capt), 2 Andrew Gonsalves, 3 Krishna Arjune, 4 Narsingh Deonarine, 5 Homchand Pooran, 6 Damodar Dasrath, 7 Vishal Nagamootoo (wk), 8 Hemnarine Harinarine, 9 Kevin Basil, 10 Reon Griffith, 11 Rayon Thomas.

Indians 1 SS Das, 2 Deep Dasgupta (wk), 3 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 4 Sachin Tendulkar, 5 Rahul Dravid, 6 VVS Laxman, 7 Sanjay Bangar, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Javagal Srinath, 11 Zaheer Khan.

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