India A vs England Lions, 2nd unofficial ODI, Review: Ajinkya Rahane, Hanuma Vihari take the team closer to a series win

India A brought out another comprehensive performance against the England Lions to take a 2-0 lead in the series. Led by skipper Ajinkya Rahane and Hanuma Vihari, the team bagged a mammoth 138-run win. After they were put into bat first, India A lost the wicket of young Anmolpreet Singh early in the innings.

But since then, both Rahane and Vihari played some wonderful cricket and hardly gave a chance to the bowlers. These two added 181 runs together as Ajinkya Rahane registered back-to-back fifties. However, these classy batsmen blinked at the wrong time and thus missed out on reaching the triple figures by a whisker.

Shreyas Iyer making a strong contention for himself

It was Vihari who was first dismissed after a quickfire 92 which came from 83 balls. His innings included eight fours and four sixes. Soon, Ajinkya Rahane followed him back to the pavilion after a well-made 91. From here, Shreyas Iyer took the game on to the bowlers and played some beautiful cricketing shots. He didn’t go all too aggressive but still managed to score at a strike rate of about 140.

He rotated the strike quite often and yielded out the big shots whenever required. The right-hander, after missing out on a half-century in the first game of the series, made up for it this time as he scored 65 off 47 balls. India A finished with a massive total of 303/6 in 50 overs.

Mayank Markande shines with the ball

Some exceptional bowling from the Indians saw England Lions struggle in the chase. They lost wickets early in the innings and were soon reduced to 62/4. Alex Davies, with 48 runs, was the highest scorer of the innings before he was undone by Axar Patel. Patel deserves a special mention for his highly economical spell. In 9 overs, he only gave away 13 runs and picked up 2 wickets.

Skipper Sam Billings, who registered a century in the series opener, got out for just 12 runs this time around. He was dismissed by Mayank Markande who accounted for a total of three wickets in the game. Lewis Gregory did try to take the attack on to the bowlers towards the end. But, it was too much of an asking for him and he ultimately perished for 39 runs. Every bowler who was given the ball was among wickets and Ajinkya Rahane was spot on with his captaincy.

Brief Scores:

India A: 303/6 in 50 overs (Hanuma Vihari 92, Ajinkya Rahane 91, Zak Chappell 2/47)

England Lions: 165/10 in 37.4 overs (Alex Davies 48, Lewis Gregory 39, Mayank Markande 3/32)

Result: India A won by 138 runs.

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