India A set for big lead

Tour match, The Oval, day one: Surrey 173; India A 235-2 (at close)

Full scorecard

Sriram will look to complete a hundred on day two

Sridharan Sriram was in sight of a century at the end of a highly productive day against an inexperienced Surrey side.

The left-hander strick 16 fours in his 92 not out, but equally impressive was the performance of the Indian seam bowlers.

Amit Bhandari took 5-54 as the county side were bowled out in just 44 overs, and Aavishkar Salvi supported him well for figures of 3-49.

Surrey went into the match with a side containing only three regular first-teamers in Ally Brown and Rikki Clarke, who have both played one-day internationals, and wicket-keeper Jon Batty.

Skipper Scott Newman (27) and Batty (24) laucnhed their innings with a half century stand but wickets fell regularly after Newman had been dismissed by Bhandari.

Brown was caught behind off Salvi for a six-ball duck and Clarke's 38, made from only 35 balls, proved to be the top score.

India made a solid start in reply, reaching 48 before Wasim Jaffer (21) edged a ball from 17-year-old Jade Dernbach and Batty made no mistake behind the stumps.

Sriram helped captain Shiv Das add 102 for the second wicket, with Das helping himself to a six and 12 fours in his 74, only to then fall lbw to off-spinner Matthew Todd.

His exit offered little respite for the home side as Sriram continued towards three figures without serious difficulty, and Gautam Gambhir raced to 43 off 35 balls before the close.

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Surrey: S A Newman (Capt), J N Batty (Wkt), N Shahid, R Clarke, A D Brown, J G E Benning, B J M Scott, T J Murtagh, N C Saker, M J Todd, N Dernbach.

India A: S S Das (Capt), W Jaffer, S Sriram, A T Rayudu, R Vijay Bharadwaj, G Gambhir, P A Patel (Wkt), A Mishra, L Balaji, A M Salvi, A Bhandari.