After the avalanche of runs on Wednesday, one was pretty much inured to the sight of batsmen getting stuck into disprited attacks with an almost gruesome relish. For the final round-robin game between India A and India B, yet another shirtfront of a wicket was laid out on which 569 runs were totted up. In such forbidding circumstances, Venkatesh Prasad was one of the few bowlers who could hold their head up in pride at a job adroitly done.

Striding in to bowl the second over of the innings, he had the misfortune of going up against a rampaging Sachin Tendulkar who creamed five boundaries in his first two overs. But with the last ball of his second over, he deceived the master blaster into checking an intended drive and the ball was searing into Prasad's face when he instinctively closed his hands around it. Tendulkar's departure for a measly 24 made a massive dent in India B's chances of making the final.

In his fourth over, Prasad marched off the other opener Jai Prakash Yadav who mistimed a slower ball into Reetinder Sodhi at cover. When the gangling seamer went off after a first spell of 6-0-38-2, India B were just recovering from those twin strikes. A rewarding association between Amay Khurasiya and Dinesh Mongia allowed them to surge back into the game and the scoring rate was still above six when Prasad was restored to the proceedings in the 39th over. Settling immediately on a mean length and direction, he bowled a maiden straight up to Robin Singh and was taken off by skipper Rahul Dravid after a two over spell.

Back at the death for a third and final tilt at the batsmen, Prasad continued to be a difficult proposition, cleaning up the innings with two wickets in the 50th over. He had Nikhil Chopra knocking one down long-off's throat and two balls later made a mess of Surinder Singh's wicket. Prasad's final analysis of 4/48 in nine and a half overs was remarkable, more so after the opening two had been flayed all over the park for 22 runs. The final target of 285 was hardly designed to intimidate India A's own formidable stack of batsmen and they duly coasted home with eight balls to spare.