Manish Pandey ton secures win against South Africa-A

India ‘A’ skipper Manish Pandey smashed an unbeaten and marvelous 100 as the Indians climbed their way back up in the quadrangular series with a win over South Africa ‘A’. The win comes a few short hours after the Indians were thrashed out of sight by the Australia ‘A’ side in the opening ODI of the Quadrangular series.

Manish Pandey called the toss correctly and decided to field first. The Indian bowlers went on to repay the faith Pandey had put on them when they responded to his call to arms almost immediately. Opener Reeza Hendricks was dismissed in the second over of the match when Faiz Fazal picked up a sharp catch in the slips. The Proteas skipper Heino Kuhn and Theunis de Bruyn made a futile attempt to play the Indian seam attack, but to no avail.

Kuhn was dismissed before the end of the first powerplay when he was cleaned up by Indian left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat after mustering just 10 runs. The Proteas were struck with a body blow when wicketkeeper-batsman Dane Vilas also failed to launch his innings and was dismissed for a single-digit score. De Bruyn and David Miller began the rebuilding process before de Bruyn was cleaned up by Hardik Pandya in the 22nd over as the Proteas were staring down the barrel.

Having been dropped from the first squad, it was clear that David Miller had to make amends and make them quickly before the Indian bowlers were all over them. Miller and Qaasim Adams began what would become an important 110-run stand, something that would go on to save the Proteas from their predicament at the moment. Miller was denied a century as he fell 10 runs adrift to Dhawal Kulkarni before Adams was dismissed after a well-made 52. The collapse at this point was imminent as the Proteas were reduced to 230/8 in their 50 overs.

Also Read – India in India will be a big challenge: Glenn McGrath

The Indian innings was a story of batsmen getting starts with none able to convert those starts to a big total. Right arm pacer Andie Phehlukwayo ran riot as he dismissed the Indian openers Faiz Fazal and Karun Nair early on in the innings for 19 and 17 respectively. The match was evenly poised when Mandeep Singh has dismissed soon after. Enter Manish Pandey.

The Indian skipper batted with the true and acute responsibility when he showed character to weather the storm and put his side back on track following a terrible defeat in the opening match of the series. In spite of little or no support at the other end, Pandey went about his merry way of stitching the first century of the series. He would also go on to smash the winning runs as well as the Indians reached the target with 3 wickets and 8 deliveries to spare.

Brief Scores

South Africa ‘A’: 230/8 in 50 overs (D Miller 90; D Kulkarni 4/37)

India ‘A’: 234/7: in 48.4 overs (M Pandey 100*; Q Adams 2/16)

Also Check out – Watch: MS Dhoni – The Untold Story trailer