India A vs Australia A, 2nd Unofficial Test, Day 1, Review: Mitchell Marsh and Head keep Aussies in front

The second unofficial Test between India A and Australia A commenced today at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur. The visitors once again won the toss and had no hesitation in batting first. While the Indian bowlers bowled well up front, the old problem of not being able to clean the tail came back to haunt them. Australia A ended the day on 290/6 with their skipper Mitchell Marsh and Michael Neser digging it out in the middle.

They came together with the scoreboard reading 180/6 and batted superbly since then to deny the home side any wicket in the last session. Fit-again Marsh showed some brilliant technique against the spinners and showed amazing temperament to stay in the middle. He remained unbeaten on 86 off 151 deliveries at stumps with Neser also looking confident on 44 off 108 balls with six fours to his name.

Better show by Aussies

After opting to bat first, the Australians lost the wicket of Matt Renshaw in the second over as Rajneesh Gurbani disturbed the furniture of the batsman. But then came a calming partnership between Travis Head and Kurtis Patterson. Head has batted extremely well on this tour and might make a case for his inclusion for the upcoming UAE tour in the national team. He scored yet another half-century and went on to make 68 runs.

On the other hand, Patterson was also looking good to reach his fifty but failed to pick Shahbaz Nadeem’s delivery and in the process lost his stumps. The same bowler then sent back Peter Handscomb, who has been struggling on this trip to India, for eight runs. Even Marnus Labuschagne was dismissed for a seven-ball duck. This is where the tide started to take the turn.

Marsh took Ashton Agar to his side and stitched a 40-run stand before the latter was dismissed by Krishnappa Gowtham. By then though the Aussie captain was set and he got an able partner in Neser to continue the good work which left the bowlers frustrated.

Brief Scores

Australia A 290/6 after 90 overs (M Marsh 86*, T Head 68; S Nadeem 2/64, K Yadav 2/68)

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