| Player: | Y Venugopal Rao |
Two days before his 22nd birthday, he shot into national contention with an unbeaten 228 for South Zone to help them chase down England A's target of 501, the fourth-highest successful first-class chase. Venugopal had earlier been part of the Indian team that won the Under-19 World Cup in 2002. Prolific run-getting in domestic matches meant he was not far from national selection. Once into the national ODI team, Venugopal has not been quite at home. He has shown shades of the early Rahul Dravid. His only half-century was a stodgy unbeaten 61 off 93 balls against Pakistan.