Quadrangular Series 2018, Day-3: Round-Up

Due to the inclement weather conditions in the state of Andhra Pradesh, play on the first two days of the Quadrangular series was not possible. The first four games had to be abandoned without a ball being bowled. With the weather conditions in the region only deteriorating, the BCCI was forced to shift the two venues to Bengaluru and Alur in Karnataka.

Two matches were played at the new venues on the third day of the tournament. In the first encounter, India A was up against Australia A at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. It was India B against South Africa A in the second encounter at the KSCA Cricket Ground in Alur. Here is how things progressed in both these games:

India A vs Australia A – Match 5

Australia A’s skipper Travis Head won the toss in Bengaluru and opted to bat first. However, his team faltered with the bat and couldn’t post a total anywhere near par. Their openers D’Arcy Short and Usman Khawaja got out for 15 and 13 runs respectively while Head was dismissed for 28 runs.

There wasn’t much of a fightback from the other batsmen after this initial collapse and the team kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Ashton Agar with 34 runs was the highest run scorer for his team. Australia A was bundled out for just 151 runs within 32 overs. Among the Indian bowlers, it was Mohammad Siraj who troubled them the most picking four wickets in his spell whereas K Gowtham picked three.

India A’s chase didn’t go on as smoothly as one would expect. The openers, R Samarth and Suryakumar Yadav fell early in the innings. Furthermore, Sanju Samson got out for a duck and skipper Shreyas Iyer was dismissed for four runs. At this stage, Ambati Rayuduwho was added to the team yesterday, came to their rescue along with Krunal Pandya.

These two took their time before making a move as the scoring rate was never a challenge. Rayudu was unbeaten on 62 off 107 balls while Pandya got out after scoring 49. With the help of this partnership, India finished the chase with 5 wickets and 11.3 overs to spare.

Brief Scores:

AUS A: 151/10 in 31.4 overs (Ashton Agar 34, Travis Head 28, Mohammad Siraj 4/68)

IND A: 152/5 in 38.3 overs (Ambati Rayudu 62*, Krunal Pandya 49, Jhye Richardson 3/27)

Result: India A won by 5 wickets

Man of the Match: Ambati Rayudu

India B vs South Africa A – Match 6

Despite changing the venue, the weather conditions didn’t really help. The rain gods followed the two teams to Alur and due to intervention, the second innings had to be cut short to 45 overs. India B’s skipper Manish Pandey put the visitors into bat first after winning the toss. Just like Australia A in the previous game, South Africa A was also bundled out for a paltry score in the first innings. Senuran Muthuswamy was the top scorer for the Proteas with 55 runs as the team was bowled out for 231 runs. Prasidh Krishna picked four wickets for India B while Shreyas Gopal bagged three.

India B had to chase 220 runs in 45 overs. Although they lost opener Mayanka Agarwal and Deepak Hooda for 7 and 4 runs respectively, Shubman Gill the other opener looked impressive during his knock of 42 runs. The best innings came from the willow of skipper Manish Pandey who remained unbeaten on 95 off 105 balls. Kedar Jadhav, who was making a comeback scored 23 off 24 balls. With India B six runs away from the win, rain gods again decided to interrupt the proceedings. The DLS method was taken into consideration and India B won the match by 30 runs.

Brief Scores:

RSA A: 231/10 in 47.3 overs (Senuran Muthuswamy 55, Farhaan Behardien 43, Prasidh Krishna 4/49)

IND B: 214/5 in 40.3 overs (Manish Pandey 95*, Shubman Gill 42, Dane Patterson 2/33)

Result: India B won by 30 runs (DLS Method)

Man of the Match: Manish Pandey

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