Day one of the second 4-day game between India ‘A’ & Australia ‘A’ saw a gritty batting display from Karun Nair and a disciplined bowling effort from Australia ‘A’. As a result, India ‘A’ were bowled out for 135 and in reply Australia ‘A’ were 43/0 at stumps on Day 1. Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja were at the crease with scores of 24 & 13 respectively.
Earlier in the day, India ‘A’ Captain Cheteshwar Pujara won the toss and elected to bat first. The big news though was India’s Test captain Virat Kohli opting to play in the fixture to be ready for the forthcoming Sri Lanka series. With Kohli’s entry into the playing eleven, Cheteshwar Pujara opened the batting replacing regular opener KL Rahul. Pacer Varun Aaron was also included in the squad who replaced Abhimanyu Mithun from the previous match.
India A’s start with the bat was slow as the opening duo of Abhinav Mukund and Pujara managed just 18 runs in the first ten overs. In the eleventh over, medium pacer Marcus Stoinis got Pujara out bowled for 11. Virat Kohli walked in to bat at No.3 and joined Mukund. Mukund who began slowly was out caught behind by wicketkeeper Matthew Wade for 15.
Kohli at the other end hit a six and a boundary and looked like getting a big one. Left-arm slow bowler Ashton Agar though had other plans and put an end to Kohli’s run-scoring as he got him trapped lbw for 16. Shreyas Iyer followed him almost immediately and was out bowled by Stephen O’Keefe for just 1. India ‘A’ were tottering at 53/4 as Karun Nair and wicketkeeper batsman Naman Ojha began the repair work.
Nair in particular kept the runs flowing while Ojha was stuck at the crease blocking one end. His 84-ball 10 runs assistance was finally put to an end by Agar. Nair on the other hand brought up his half century, a knock that came when his side needed the most. Soon after his half century, he too departed giving pacer Andrew Fekete his first wicket of the day. India A were 114/6 at that stage and lost their next four wickets for 21 runs. They were bowled out for 135. Gurinder Sandhu was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3/25.
