After being dismissed for 231 and conceding a lead of 168 runs, India fought back gallantly to finish at 241 for no loss, at the end of the third day's play in the second `Test' match being played between India Under-19s and England Under-19s at the MA Chidamabaram Stadium, Chepauk in Chennai on Monday.

England looked like making a comeback after their loss in the first `Test', by reducing India to 122/4 at the end of play on Sunday. In the morning session's play of two and a half hours, England picked up three more wickets conceding 90 runs.

Chris Tremlett bowled well in the morning and was distinctly unlucky when Nicky Peng dropped a sitter in the slips of his bowling. The batsman to benefit was Kashinath Khadkikar. Soon after completing his fifty, Ishan Ganda survived a confident appeal for caught behind off the bowling of Ian Pattison. The ball seemed to kiss the batsman's gloves on its way to the keeper.

The incident really fired up the English boys. Pattison had a few words to say to the batsman. Ganda was clearly disturbed by all that was going around him and fell to the bowling of Tremlett, caught behind by Mark Wallace for 67. Ganda faced 143 balls and struck eight boundaries in his innings.

The India colts were in a shaky position at 156/5 and were thrown into deeper trouble when Khadkikar was caught behind off Justin Bishop for 30 at 171. The left arm pacer Bishop, bowling over the wicket, made the ball angle away from the right handed batsman and took the edge.

Andrew McGarry came back into the attack and bowled with much more fire and purpose. A well directed bouncer from McGarry had Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan hooking and the ball flew high to the fine leg. Pattison, running around, took a good catch, close to the boundary line. The poor English fielding continued as Pattison dropped Mulewa Dharmichand at third slip off the bowling of McGarry.

India resumed after lunch at 212/7 requiring 38 more runs to avoid the following on. In the second over after the luncheon, Pattison made a ball to rise awkwardly and all Dharmichand could do was to pat it to the cover fielder John Sadler.

Captain Ajay Ratra was the next to go at 216, caught by Bishop off the bowling of Monty Panesar. Ratra made 28 runs before being caught at deep mid off, going for a big shot. The last pair of SK Trivedi and N Aggarwal tried their best to reach the magic score of 250. Trivedi was caught by Wallace of the bowling of Pattison for 12 at the score of 231. Aggarwal remained unbeaten on 5.

Following on, 168 runs behind, India U19s got off to a blazing start with openers Vinayak Mane and Gautham Gambhir in tremendous striking form. Both batsmen played lovely hook shots of the medium pacers. Mane hooked one from McGarry for a six over the square leg and welcomed Tremlett with two powerful square cuts that fetched him boundaries.

The post tea session clearly belonged to the openers. Mane and Gambhir launched a punishing counter attack to complete brilliant unbeaten centuries. Both batsman continued to be in tremendous form, playing all the shots in the book. The runs were scored at such a fast rate that India got over the first innings deficit of 168 runs in the 32nd over.

Gambhir, the left-handed batsman who plays for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy, has a first class century to his credit. Today he made the English bowling look quite ordinary. The strokes from his bat flew in all direction as Ian Bell ran out of ideas. To make things worse, Mane played an equally explosive innings driving and pulling at will.

England slipped from the commanding position of strength to absolute defence, due to their miserable fielding display. Wallace and Panesar missed simple catches off the flashy Gambhir. Mane too had a reprieve off the bowling of Bishop when McGarry misjudged an overhead catch at mid off. England has only themselves to blame for such an ordinary effort in the field.

Ian Bell brought in the bowling changes at regular intervals, but failed to make the breakthrough. By close of the day's play, he brought himself into the attack and Mane duly despatched him to the cover fence to reach his hundred. After three balls of seam, he shifted to bowling off spin, epitomising the clueless English performance.

At close of play India Under-19s were 241 for no loss in 47 overs. The opening batsmen have so far dominated the bowling scoring at more than five runs an over. Gambhir is unbeaten on 121 off 141 balls with 17 fours and a six. Mane is on 115 off 144 balls with 14 boundaries and two sixes.

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