The India A team faced their New Zealand counterparts as they won the first unofficial ODI of the three-match series at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval on Wednesday. After the bowlers running through the hosts’ batting order, the batsmen completed the task with ease. In-form batsman Prithvi Shaw, who had smashed 150 runs off 100 balls in the second warm-up game against New Zealand, was looking in great nick again, while Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav also had a fun time out at the middle with their willows.
However, it was the bowlers who were too hot to handle for the Kiwi batsmen, especially, Mohammed Siraj who was the pick of the Indian bowlers as he returned with a figure of 3/33 in his 6.3 overs. Khaleel Ahmed and Axar Patel contributed with two wickets each, while Vijay Shankar and Rahul Chahap with a wicket apiece.
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Meanwhile, Siraj was on fire as he literally affected a couple of cartwheel with the Kiwi batsmen. Two of his three wickets saw the stumps going a walk. His second wicket, which sent Ajaz Patel packing, had the middle stumps rolling over by a fiery delivery. His third and the last wicket of the local team’s innings also witnessed a similar scene. But instead of the middle-stump, it was the off-stump doing the cartwheel for Jacob Duffy to walk towards the pavilion.
Here is the video of the dismissals:
Chasing 231, India A were off to a flying start as Shaw (48 off 35 balls) and Mayank Agarwal (29 off 29) added 79 runs. But two quick wickets had an impact on teh impetus before Indian skipper Shubman Gill (30 off 35) and Samson (39 off 21) made a partnership of 66 runs for the third wicket helped India take the upper hand again.
Other than Shaw and Samson, almost every Indian batsmen contributed with substantial efforts with the bat, while Suryakumar also displayed a great power-hitting form ahead of the IPL. He scored a fiery 35 off 19 balls.
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Following, lower-order batsmen Krunal Pandya and Vijay Shankar made sure that India A don’t suffer any further casualties and win the game by 5 wickets with more than 20 overs to spare. On being asked to bat first, most of the Kiwi batsmen got a start but failed to capitalize and gave India wickets in regular intervals. Opener Rachin Ravindra and captain Tom Bruce were the highest scorers with 49 and 47 respectively.
