Originally scheduled to be played on October 8, the second unofficial one-dayer yielded a thriller as India A finished with 269 for 9 in response to New Zealand A’s 269 for 6 in a 42 overs-a-side contest at Visakhapatnam. India A captain Shreyas Iyer‘s fell ten short of a third List-A hundred, after Glenn Phillips‘s mammoth century set India A scoring rate of close to six and a half runs on a rain-fed VDCA pitch.
With a run a ball required off the last 10 overs, Iyer was sniped out by Todd Astle off the first ball of the 32nd, handing New Zealand a breakthrough in the wake of a sixth-wicket partnership of 126 runs. Iyer, who made more than half of his runs in boundaries – sevens fours and five sixes – partnered Maharashtra batsman Ankit Bawne, whose unbeaten 80-ball 83 anchored India A’s chase after half the side was sent back inside 15 overs with only 84 runs on the scoreboard.
Sent in to bat at No. 7, his 102-ball stand with Iyer took India past 200, before the latter’s dismissal resulted in the hosts losing three wickets for 13 runs towards the close of the game. Bawne’s eight List-A half-century weathered the quick dismissals, but was unable to take India A over the line as the game ended in a tie, with his 36-run ninth-wicket stand with Shahbaz Naddem (7) coming to an end in the last ball of the penultimate over. While fast bowler Matt Henry accounted for Nadeem, Astle’s ran through the middle order, bagging returns of 4 for 22 off his nine overs. However, it was Scott Kuggeleijn’s double-strike in the fifth over that dismissed the openers and dealt the early blows to India A’s innings.
New Zealand A’s impressive showing with the ball was preceded by Auckland batsman Phillips’ unbeaten 140 – his fourth List A ton – which saw his pepper 15 fours and four sixes during his off 130-ball knock. Having come in to bat after the dismissal of George Worker in the fourth over, Philips steered two fifty-plus partnerships for the third and fourth wickets, before his unbroken seventh-wicket stand with Henry handed the visitors a late flourish as they clobbered 36 unbroken runs off 18 balls to take New Zealand A to a formidable total.
Among the India A bowlers, Siddarth Kaul bagged a three-for, while Karn Sharma took out Tom Bruce (46) and Tom Blundell (3).
Source: ESPN Crickinfo