India A coasted to a six-wicket win to take an unassailable 2-0 lead against New Zealand A in the three-match one-day series at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam.
After Unmukt Chand opted to bowl first, Dhawal Kulkarni sent back the openers and Ashok Menaria ran through the middle order to claim his maiden five-wicket haul and tilt the match in India A’s favour. Later on, Sandeep Sharma and Basant Mohanty wrapped up the tail to restrict the visitors to 216 in 47.2 overs. Propelled by half-centuries from the captain and Mandeep Singh, the hosts’ batsmen then chased down the target with 67 balls to spare.
Earlier, Anton Devcich was the first to walk back after edging Kulkarni to Aditya Tare behind the stumps in the second over; while Luke Ronchi was trapped leg-before by the pacer a few overs later. Ashok Menaria, who was also involved in Tom Latham’s run out that gave India their third breakthrough, then ripped apart the middle order to tilt the match in India A’s favour. Sandeep Sharma took a brilliant catch to dismiss Colin Munro to give the bowler his first scalp. And with Daryl Mitchell offering a catch to Mandeep Singh at long-off 30 runs later, NZ A were 120 for five.
The next to depart was No.3 bat Carl Cachopa, who had rallied on to make 80 before lofting the ball into the hands of Mandeep Singh to end the 67-run stand with Andrew Ellis and return to the dressing room. In his next over, the left-arm spinner claimed Ellis who was caught at long-on by Robin Uthappa while attempting to accelerate. And a couple of deliveries later, Scott Kuggelijn coming down the track was stumped by Aditya Tare to give Menaria his fifth scalp in his last over and leave the visitors on 196 for eight.
The pacers then wrapped up the innings with 16 balls to spare. Mark Gillespie was removed by Sandeep Sharma, and then Mohanty returned to end NZ A’s innings by dismantling Adam Milne’s woodwork in the next over.
Chasing the target, the hosts lost last match’s highest run-getter, Robin Uthappa, for 12. Mark Gillespie, who had removed the opener, also accounted for the wicket of Tare 19 runs later.
The India A skipper however continued to guide the chase and was ably supported by Mandeep Singh in the quest. Chand reached his seventh List A fifty in the process and looked in sublime touch. While on 59, the young opener was castled by Milne for 59, ending the third wicket partnership for 89 runs.
With India still 84 runs away from the target, Kedar Jadhav joined Mandeep Singh in the middle. Singh, who had cobbled Kuggeleijn for 14 runs an over earlier, continued to take the innings forward and reached his ninth first-class half-century with a single to thirdman. But Mandeep too was bowled for 59. Matt Henry had uprooted the middle-order bat’s off-stump to bring Ashok Menaria to the crease. Menaria played a quickfire knock to take his team to a win. Although he opened his account off the seventh delivery he faced, he helped garner 11 runs from each of the next two overs with two boundaries apiece off Henry and Gillespie, to bring India A within sniffing distance of victory. Remaining unbeaten, Jadhav (30*) and Menaria (37*) took the team across the line with a 53-run unbroken partnership.
Brief scores: New Zealand A 216 all-out in 47.2 overs (C Cachopa 80, A Menaria 5/38, D Kulkarni 2/41) lost to India A 217/4 in 38.5 overs (U Chand 59, M Singh 59, A Menaria 37*) by 6 wickets
