IND A vs AUS A 2025: Indians fight back but visitors still in command

The start of the second day was delayed due to incessant morning rains in the city of Lucknow, where the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium is hosting the first unofficial Test between India A and Australia A. And like the rains were there to disrupt the timely start, even the end was abrupt, as rain gods played spoilsport after Tea as well. As a result, only 55 overs were bowled before the umpires called it enough for Day 2.

An early start on Wednesday meant that the visitors resumed from 337-5 from the opening day. Decking up runs aplenty in the early hours of the first session, the Nathan McSweeney-led side declared their first innings at 532 when six wickets had fallen. Of these, half were scalped by left-arm spinner Harsh Dubey. Josh Philippe played like it was some ODI, staying unbeaten on 123 off just 87 balls.

“I just looked to be positive. It was a pretty good wicket and Scotty batted beautifully. Then, Xavier came in, and we had a nice little partnership at the end. And when we're told we're probably declaring soon, it requires attacking against the spinners. I played them naturally. I like to try and take the game on and look to put pressure back on them straight away,” he told reporters as quoted by ESPNcricinfo. 

As the Shreyas Iyereply began, a solid start to the second innings is exactly what the openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Narayan Jagadeesan gave, however, just as the former looked well set for his half-century, Liam Scott ran through his defence on the first ball of his third and final over on the day. Jagadeesan was then joined by his Tamil Nadu teammate, Sai Sudharsan, as the duo attempted to rebuild the momentum and ensure no further hiccups.

The ace opener reached his half-century after hitting six sublime boundaries. When the play resumes with the action on Day 3, the wicketkeeper-batter would like to convert it into a three-figure mark. Sudharsan, on the other end, also displayed a great start, and would be aiming to make it count, as only a couple of days are left in the match to draw a result out of it.