Srikar Bharat’s 105 puts India A in command against Australia A

In reply, the visitors lost their openers Kurtis Patterson and Matthew Renshaw early and when stumps where drawn on day three, Australia A were 38 for two, trailing India A by 121 runs.

Andhra’s Srikar Bharat made 105 on day three of the 2nd unofficial Test as India A posted a big total of 505 runs in the first innings to take a lead of 159 runs at the Alur Cricket Ground, Alur on Monday against Australia A.

In reply, the visitors lost their openers Kurtis Patterson and Matthew Renshaw early and when stumps where drawn on day three, Australia A were 38 for two, trailing India A by 121 runs.

Resuming on 223 for three, India A lost skipper Shreyas Iyer for 42 to rival captain Mitchell  Marsh. Iyer added just 12 runs to his overnight score. However, Shubman Gill and Bharat combined for a stand of 41 runs, with Gill scoring 50 before he was taken by Chris Tremain.

Australia A then dented India A’s progress with two more quick wickets as Brendan Dogget removed K Gowtham for 20 and Ashton Agar trapped Deepak Chahar for 6.

However, Bharat found company in Kuldeep Yadav and the duo scored 113 runs between them for the eighth wicket. Kuldeep made to 52 off 112 balls and last man Rajneesh Gurbani’s 19-ball 16 helped India A cross the 500-run mark.

Bharat was the last man out to Agar after reaching the triple-figure mark.

With 14 overs to go in the day, Renshaw and Patterson survived 8.5 overs before Patterson was cleaned up by Gowtham. Two overs later, Renshaw was scalped by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem.

Brief Scores: Australia A 346 and 38/2 trail India 505 (SRikar Bharat 105, Abhimanyu Eswaran 86; Chris Tremain 3/41) by 121 runs

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