Ton-ups Hanuma Vihari and Rishabh Pant displayed their class in the 2nd Practice match against Australia A on Saturday. The duo slammed unbeaten centuries on Day 2 to guide India to 386-4 at Stumps. Test-specialists Vihari slammed 104 runs off 194 runs as his innings was laced by 13 boundaries. While flamboyant Pant played a counter-attacking knock off 103 runs in 73 balls, which included 9 fours and 6 sixes.

Earlier, Indian openers Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal came out to bat on Day 2 with a healthy 76-run lead already on their side. Shaw’s misery with the bat continues as the youngster was dismissed on 3 by Mark Steketee.

Shubman Gill then joined Mayank in the middle to build a crucial 104-run stand. Gill played a brilliant knock off 65 runs, which almost cemented his place as an opener in the first Test starting from December 17. While Mayank also got back into red-ball cricket’s grove with 61-run innings.

Skipper Ajinkya Rahane started off well against the Pink-Ball but he edged Steketee’s delivery to Alex Carey and departed on 38.

Vihari then rebuilt India’s innings with Pant with their respective styles of batting. The right-hander struck to his orthodox cricket and scored runs with some technical shots, while the southpaw decided to explode after reaching his fifty as he scored 22 runs in the last over of the day to reach his hundred. The duo shared a 147-run stand to put India on top with a massive 472-run lead.

Vihari’s knock is a sigh of relief for India’s team management as a lot of questions were put up on the team middle-order. While Pant has also silenced his critics and the century almost guaranteed his place in the playing XI for the opening Tests over Wriddhiman Saha.

For Australia A, Steketee was the most impressive bowler as he scalped two crucial wickets.

Team India is expected to declare the innings early on Day 3 to give ample time to their bowlers to bowl out Australia A and get some practice with the Pink-Ball.