SA A v IND A, 1st unofficial Test, Day 4 Review: Hosts seal the game in just 32 balls

India A lasted only 25 minutes on the final day of the first unofficial Test match of the 2-match series against South Africa A who took a 1-0 lead in the series with a 235-run win. Pacer Junior Dala bagged three wickets on the 4th day while India A batsman Vijay Shankar, who retired hurt in the first innings, didn’t walk out to bat in this innings, and he was marked absent hurt.

Dala, who picked up two wickets on day 3 added three more in three overs on the final day to wrap up the India A innings. Shahbaz Nadeem was the first to go after adding just 4 runs to his overnight score of 28 and Aniket Choudhary followed him with a 12-ball duck. In his 3rd successive over, the South African pacer removed Mohammed Siraj to end the game. Dala ended up figures of 5/36 in the innings, his 5th five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

India A’s batting lasted only 32 balls on the 4th day in which they added 19 runs to their overnight total to end up with 211, nine less than South Africa A’s 2nd innings total. Out of the 19 runs, they scored on the 4th day morning, 9 were courtesy extras while Siraj and Nadeem scored six and four respectively. India A aggregated 331 runs in this game which is lower than South Africa A’s first inning total of 346. Stephen Cook, who was named as Man of the Match scored 120 in the first innings and followed it with a 32 in the second.

The match might put Shankar’s future in jeopardy after the chief selector, MSK Prasad made it clear that only the fit players will be given an opportunity. The all-rounder from Tamil Nadu has faced a lot of issues in the recent past. He returned to the pavilion in the middle of the innings on 4 different occasions including this match since the start of 2015/16 season.

Brief Scores:

South Africa A 1st innings 346/10 (Stephen Cook 120, David Miller 78; Mohammed Siraj 4/61)

India A 1st innings 120/10 (Shreyas Iyer 31, Vijay Shankar 25 r.h.; Beuran Hendricks 3/23)

South Africa A 2nd innings 220/5 dec (Aiden Markram 79, Rudi Second 74; Navdeep Saini 3/20)

India A 2nd innings 211/10 (Ankit Bawne 43, Ishan Kishan 39; Junior Dala 5/36)

South Africa A won by 235 runs