Rahul Dewan scores unbeaten ton; England extend lead to 306

Ahmedabad: Rahul Dewan struck an impressive unbeaten 143 but England bowled out Haryana for 333 and then extended their lead to 306 runs on the back of half-centuries from their openers in the second innings, here on Saturday.

Jonathan Trott was rock solid on 61 and giving him company was Nick Compton (54) as England reached 118 without loss at the end of the penultimate day of the warm up game. Haryana`s middle order collapsed and all they could mange was 333 after resuming the day at 172 for four as they handed England a 188-run lead. Dewan ran out of the partners but carried his bat through against a disciplined England attack and helped his side avoid follow-on. Dewan`s knock stood out in the Haryana scorecard, in which the only other knock of relevance came from number three Sunny Singh (55). Reduced to 256 for seven at lunch, Haryana managed to cross 300 after Chanderpal Saini contributed 35 runs, which included seven boundaries. Saini shared an important 60-run partnership with Dewan, frustrating the visiting bowlers for quite some time. Pacers Tim Bresnan (3/66) and Stuart Meaker (3/74) picked up three wickets apiece for England. Trott and Compton, who is most likely to be Alastair Cook`s opening partner for the first Test against India, batted together for more than two-and-a-half hours. Trott, the only top-order batsmen to not have scored a fifty yet, was promoted to open the batting in place of Cookabd he obliged with a sedate half-century, laced with 10 hits to the fence. Trott hit some sublime flicks off his legs and reached his half-century with a glorious back-foot punch. Compton also struck a chanceless half-century, reaching 54 off 111 balls with seven boundaries as England consolidated their overall position in the match. In the morning session, the fall of wickets started pretty early for Haryana as Sandeep Singh departed after a 35-ball seven with the help of a four. He was caught by Cook off Bresnan. Amit Mishra (17) and Jayant Yadav (17) provided brief company to Dewan before falling to Meaker, who is in the team as cover for the injured Steven Finn. Mishar was caught behind while Yadav was castled by the paceman in a gap of six overs. Samit Patel then took his second wicket of the match when he trapped Amit Vashisht (16). The regular fall of wickets, however, did little to affect Dewan`s morale as he held one end. He found an able ally in tail-ender Saini, who batted for one hour and 11 minutes for his 35. PTI