England Lions vs India A, Final, Review: Sam Hain's knock in vain as Shreyas Iyer and Co storm to glory

Both India A and the England Lions came into the match on the back of three victories. They lost once against each other in the league matches. The final match at the Lord’s went right down to the wire and both teams had their fair share of chances to pounce on each other. In the end, it was Shreyas Iyer’s boys who didn’t panic in the dying stages and romped home to victory by 5 wickets to claim the triangular series.

Sam Hain shines

Earlier in the day Iyer won the toss and elected to field first. Team India’s new T20I recruit Deepak Chahar picked up Tom Kohler-Cadmore to draw first blood. Sam Hain joined Nick Gubbins and built a 27-run stand and just when they threatened to capitalize and convert it into something big, Khaleel Ahmed dismissed Gubbins for 12 runs. Liam Livingstone and Hain took charge thereafter and put on a superlative stand of 152 runs in 147 balls.

Krunal Pandya gave his team the much-needed breakthrough with the wicket of Livingstone, who scored 83 runs from 82 balls. Ben Foakes couldn’t survive for long and perished cheaply to Shardul Thakur. A flurry of wickets followed and the hosts could only muster 264 runs in their 50 overs. Hain accomplished a stupendous ton and after his dismissal in the 46th over, the home team stumbled in the death overs.

Pant holds nerves and shepherds India

The target wasn’t an intimidating one, but it wasn’t going to be a stroll in the park either. Mayank Agarwal and Prithvi Shaw opened and blazed away, but Matthew Fishes got rid of Shaw in the seventh over. Shubman Gill promised with four boundaries, however, became Liam Dawson’s first victim. Agarwal went soon after and India had two new batsmen in Iyer and Hanuma Vihari taking charge.

The duo stitched together a partnership of 63 runs in 71 balls which resurrected the stutter in between. Steven Mullaney got rid of Iyer to bring the match in the balance. Rishabh Pant and Vihari put on 37 together and their stand was broken courtesy of a shambolic mix up in the middle, leading to Vihari’s wicket. Krunal Pandya joined Pant and got India home with ten balls to spare as the keeper completed his second fifty of the series.

Brief Scores

England A: 264/9 in 50 overs; (Sam Hain 108, Liam Livingstone 83; Khaleel Ahmed 3/48, Deepak Chahar 3/58)

India A: 267/5 in 48.2 overs; (Rishabh Pant 64*, Hanuma Vihari 37; Liam Dawson 2/37, Steven Mullaney 1/37)

India A beat England Lions by 5 wickets

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