India-A, with its batting depth, made light of the challenging total posted by England Lions to go one-up in the five-match One-Day International series at the Sports Hub, Kariyavattom, on Wednesday.
The three-wicket win that came in the first ball of the final over, chasing 286 for a win, was made possible by the half-century of skipper Ajinkya Rahane who held the innings together in the early part of the innings, the aggressiveness of Ishan Kishan and cameos from Shreyas Iyer, Anmolpreet Singh and Krunal Pandya.
This heavy blow for the visitors came after what seemed to be a match-winning century by the England Lions’ skipper, Sam Billings (108 n.o.) after the side was inserted after the Indians won the toss.
Entertaining cricket
The flat wicket, which gave batsmen of either side to showcase their skills under a hot sun, certainly did provide entertaining cricket all the way before the Indians sealed their supremacy in style.
The English had a good start with Alex Davies, Ben Duckett and Sam Hain all combining to give some problems for the home side.
Davies worked his way to a half-century before Billings took over and added momentum to his side’s innings and got to a well-deserving century with a massive heave of Shardul Thakur over long-on. His unbeaten innings came off just 104 deliveries and was studded with five boundaries and four beyond it.
In control
Anmolpreet outscored his skipper as the Indian reply got underway to keep the side well in control before being dismissed for 33 (66 for one). Shreyas kept the tempo going while contributing 45 and adding 73-runs for the second wicket.
Rahane, comparatively, was slow in his approach but that only aided the Indian party, but then, after the skipper exited after having made 59, the home team slumped to 166 for four.
However, Ishan was his usual self and never pressed the panic button as he carried on gallantly and led the Indian charge. His knock came to an end only after the wicketkeeper had a posted a stroke-filled half-century.
The teams will square off in the second match of the series on Friday.
The scores: England Lions 285 for seven in 50 overs (Sam Billings 108 n.o., Alex Davies 54, Siddarth Kaul three for 54) lost to India-A 288 for seven in 49.1 overs (Ajinkya Rahane 59, Shreyas Iyer 45, Ishan Kishan 57 n.o., Zak Chappell three for 84).