Published: Aug 10, 2015, 12:39 PM (IST)
Edited: Aug 10, 2015, 12:57 PM (IST)
Ashton Agar took five wickets in the middle of India A’s innings to nullify the early advantage established at the start of the innings by Mayank Agarwal’s half century, and helped Australia A limit their opponents to 258 for 9 in Chennai. Agar’s impact was felt from the first over he bowled, as he removed the set Agarwal by a sharply turning delivery that pitched on leg stump and hit the top of middle. He, then, dismissed Kedar Jadhav off a full toss, Karun Nair off an arm-ball, and Sanju Samson and Akshar Patel via swept top-edges. Manish Pandey, the No. 3 who had retired hurt after a collision with the opposition wicketkeeper, returned to help his tam recover, and hit a confident half-century. LIVE UPDATES: India A vs Australia A, 4th match, Triangular Series, Chennai
Agarwal’s 61 was characterised by solid drives off the odd full ball, and authoritative pulls off the marginal errors in bowling back-of-a-length deliveries, the bowling of which seemed to be the plan of Australian seamers. He had, on Sunday, made a similarly attacking century to lead India A to their first tri-series win, against South Africa A, and after his opening partner Unmukt Chand got out edging James Pattinson to the wicketkeeper.
But his dominance, and thereby India’s, ended with a classic left-arm spinner’s dismissal. Jadhav gave his wicket away unable to control a chip to short midwicket, and Nair anticipated a turning ball as he went back in his case, trying to turn the ball to the leg side.
Pandey, who came back to rescue his team, had earlier collided with Matthew Wade trying to take two runs off a ball hit to the leg side. He suffered an injury in the chin, and walked back to the dressing room to get himself treated.
As India A lost their sixth wicket with Akshar Patel getting caught at deep midwicket, he played the first few overs safely, scoring only a single boundary when he had got to a run-a-ball 26, but thereafter opened up, smashing Travis Head for a four and a six in his one over, and he hit another six, off seamer Gurinder Sandhu, before falling for 50 off the same bowler. But his contribution was enough for the lower-order to capitalise on in the death overs.
Brief Scores:
India A 258 for 9 in 50 overs (Mayank Agarwal 61, Manish Pandey 50, Karun Nair 32; Ashton Agar 5 for 39, Gurinder Sandhu 2 for 66) vs Australia A
