India-A clinch 86-run win over National Performance Squad

Karun Nair and Dhawal Kulkarni came up with the goods as India ‘A’ followed up their win over the South Africans with an 86-run win over the National Performance Squad at the Tony Ireland Stadium in Townsville. Although Cartwright, as well as Hezlett, smashed twin half-centuries, it was not enough for NPS to clinch a win.

Having lost the toss, the Indians were forced to have a bat first. Unlike their previous performances on the tour so far, the Indians looked somewhat solid while batting first. However, in spite of this, Faiz Fazal was dismissed early on in the innings. Karun Nair and Shreyas Iyer then went on to stitch a 74-run partnership, something that highlighted the amazing aggressive batting style of Shreyas Iyer who netted in a quickfire 45. The rest of the innings saw the Indian batsmen make changes for the better part without much success.

Apart from the 72 from Karun Nair, Manish Pandey (31), Kedar Jadhav (45) and Shreyas Iyer (45) impressed one and all. However, Sanju Samson came up with the final innings blitz as he smashed 54 off just 42 deliveries, a knock that included 3 boundaries and 3 sixes. A few short innings from Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya eventually saw the Indians close on a score of 304/7 in their quota of 50 overs.

The innings for the NPS began badly when Caleb Jewel early on in the innings. However, the chase was soon rescued by Hilton Cartwright and Sam Heazlett who began to stitch an important 100-run partnership. Cartwright and Heazlett smashed 65 and 60 respectively before the former was dismissed against the run of play by Yuzvendra Chahal.

After his dismissal, it was a straight nosedive for the National Performance squad as they lost their last eight wickets for 97 runs. The Indian pacers Dhawal Kulkarni and Jaydev Unadkat were the stars of the show with 3 wickets apiece.

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Brief Scores:

India ‘A’: 304/7 in 50 overs (K Nair 72; T O’Donnell 2/46)

National Performance Squad: 218 all out (H Cartwright 65; D Kulkarni 3/38)

Player of the match: Sanju Samson