A fighting performance by Australia-A set up an interesting finale to the first unofficial Test against India-A, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here. After batting well to set a challenging target of 262, Australia-A pinned India-A to 63 for two at close of play.
Fast bowler Chris Tremain dismissed opener Abhimanyu Easwaran for a duck in the third over, before skipper Shreyas Iyer committed harakiri a short while later. Batting on 28, Shreyas charged at left-arm spinner Jon Holland and skied his shot to Kurtis Patterson at long-off. On a slow, low pitch, his cavalier approach was fraught with danger.
Mayank Agarwal (25 batting) and Ankeet Bawane (6 batting) wisely trod a cautious path to avoid further damage. Resuming on 42 for one, Australia-A did well to reach 292. Travis Head (87, 162b, 13x4) was in fine touch, as was his partner Usman Khawaja (40, 89b). Pacer Mohammed Siraj, who picked up eight wickets in the first essay, broke their 81-run second-wicket partnership with a beauty. A quick, reversing delivery squared Khawaja up and hit the off-stump.
For the second time in this encounter, Peter Handscomb and captain Mitchell Marsh did not make an impression. While Handscomb (8) was taken at slip, Marsh was run-out by a sharp piece of fielding by Shreyas at cover.
Head held the key, as he guided Australia-A past the 150-run mark. Off-spinner K. Gowtham picked up the crucial wicket with a flat, quicker delivery, which whizzed past Head’s outside edge and crashed into the stumps.
Marnus Labuschagne (37), Michael Neser (25) and Chris Tremain (25) all chipped in to add crucial runs to the Australia-A total. Siraj took three wickets to finish with a match-haul of 11 for 136.
Tremain stated that the match was on a knife-edge. “I’d say it is 50-50 right now. This is not a wicket where runs come easy. If we manage to get wickets in a cluster, it will be tough for the India-A batsmen,” Tremain said.
The scores: Australia-A — 1st innings: 243.
India-A — 1st innings: 274.
Australia-A — 2nd innings: Kurtis Patterson c Bharat b Siraj 13, Usman Khawaja b Siraj 40, Travis Head b Gowtham 87, Peter Handscomb c Samarth b Gowtham 8, Mitchell Marsh run out 9, Marnus Labuschagne b Kuldeep 37, Alex Carey c Bharat b Saini 10, Michael Neser run out 25, Chris Tremain b Siraj 25, Brendan Dogget (not out) 17, Jon Holland c Bharat b Kuldeep 0; Extras (nb-2, w-2, b-1, lb-16): 21; Total (in 83.5 overs): 292.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-95, 3-112, 4-134, 5-184, 6-201, 7-239, 8-243, 9-291, 10-292.
India-A bowling: Siraj 18-2-77-3, Saini 13-3-51-1, Gowtham 21-5-53-2, Rajpoot 13-3-43-0, Kuldeep 18.5-3-51-2.
India-A — 2nd innings: Abhimanyu Eswaran lbw b Tremain 0, Mayank Agarwal (batting) 25, Shreyas Iyer c Patterson b Holland 28, Ankeet Bawane (batting) 6; Extras (b-4): 4; Total (for two wkts. in 20 overs): 63.
Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-33.
Australia-A bowling: Tremain 5-3-16-1, Dogget 3-2-4-0, Holland 7-0-34-1, Neser 4-2-3-0, Labuschagne 1-0-2-0.