India A vs England Lions, 1st Unofficial ODI Review: Ishan Kishan steers hosts home to take a 1-0 lead

A lot of fans and pundits believe that India and England are two of the favourites to win the upcoming World Cup 2019. Both the teams have a settled team so it is not easy for fringe players to break into either team. England Lions is touring India A, which is a great opportunity for the fringe players to earn themselves a potential call-up ahead of the World Cup. In the first unofficial ODI of the series, Ishan Kishan scored a brisk fifty as India A registered a three-wicket win.

Earlier, India A captain Ajinkya Rahane won the toss and elected to bowl first. The decision of the Indian Test specialist seemed to backfire as Alex Davies scored a fifty to give a decent start for England Lions. Then some quick wickets derailed the innings of the Lions before Sam Billings took the centre-stage. The England middle-order batsman scored a brilliant century to steady the innings.

The right-handed batsman did not waste much time as he batted at a strike-rate of more than 100. He scored 108 runs off just 104 balls but a lack of support from other batsmen allowed India A bowlers to stop the visitors from posting a huge total. Visitors ended their quota of 50 overs with 285 runs for the loss of seven wickets. Mayank Markande was the star of Indian bowling as he gave away just 45 runs in nine overs, taking two wickets in the process.

Ishan Kishan and company helped India A chase the target

286 is a big target and India A needed a good start to chase this score. Ajinkya Rahane played the anchor role as he scored a half-century. While some may criticize him for using up 87 balls to score 59 runs, but his innings allowed the likes of Anmolpreet Singh and Shreyas Iyer to play more freely. A mini middle-order collapse threatened to derail India A’s chase but Ishan Kishan had different ideas.

The young wicketkeeper-batsman scored an unbeaten 57 off just 48 balls, He was provided support by Krunal Pandya and Axar Patel who played important cameos to put India A in a good position. Losing two wickets in three balls in the form of Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar made it tricky but Ishan Kishan kept his cool. Shardul Thakur scored 11 runs off 5 balls to ensure that the hosts suffered no further hiccups as they registered a three-wicket win in the final over.

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