Padikkal misses out on a century; visiting team’s second innings collapse hands the advantage to Australia-A; McSweeney impresses in the race to bag Test opener slot
India-A’s first-innings batting collapse came back to haunt it as Australia-A nosed ahead of the visitor after being set a target of 225 on the third day of the first ‘Unofficial Test’ here on Saturday.
The home team was 139 for three at stumps, needing another 86 runs for victory as the Indian bowlers could not get enough wickets to put pressure on the Australians in their second essay.
Skipper Nathan McSweeney and Beau Webster were batting on 47 and 19, respectively, at close of play.
McSweeney, one of the top contenders to bag the vacant opener’s slot in the Australian team for the marquee Test series against India, forged an unbroken partnership of 54 runs for the fourth wicket along with Webster after Australia-A slipped to 85 for three.
Better display
India-A was all out for 312 in its second innings, a far better batting display than the forgettable outing on the first day, when it crumbled for 107.
Resuming the day on 96, B. Sai Sudharsan (103) duly completed his century but Devdutt Padikkal fell for 88, adding only eight runs to his overnight score of 80 after adding 196 runs for the third wicket with the former.
India-A started the day on 208 for two.
The Australian bowlers, led by pacer Fergus O’Neill (4 for 55) and off-spinner Todd Murphy (3 for 77), fought back by taking the two big wickets in quick succession and after that, the visiting batters did not show enough application to stretch their lead.
Sai Sudharsan was the first to go, after attempting an expansive cover drive off the bowling of Murphy.
Padikkal was trapped in front of the wicket by Murphy 13 balls later after the batter went on the backfoot to tackle the off-spinner.
Flamboyant keeper-batter Ishan Kishan walked into the middle and he looked in the mood as he played some impressive shots, including pulling O’Neill for a six.
However, Ishan got out soon, caught at second slip by Cameron Bancroft off the bowling of O’Neill. Ishan made 32 off 58 balls during his stay in the middle in which he was dropped when on 21.
Reprieve
Nitish Kumar Reddy (17) also got a reprieve but he threw away his wicket by driving a low full toss from Beau Webster back to the bowler as India-A stretched the lead to 199 runs.
Fast bowler Navdeep Saini chipped in with 18 runs as India-A’s lead went past 220.
The scores: India-A 107 and 312 in 100 overs (Sai Sudharsan 103, Devdutt Padikkal 88; Fergus
O’Neill 4/55, Todd Murphy 3/77) vs Australia-A 195 and 139/3 in 50.3 overs (Nathan McSweeney 47 batting, Marcus Harris 36).