Quadrangular Series 2018, Day-5: Round-Up

The last two league games were played on the fifth day of the Quadrangular series. It will be India B who will lock horns with Australia A in the final of the tournament on Wednesday. South Africa A, who were considered to be out of the tournament made a drastic comeback against India A. The Proteas won their game by a big margin and thus got their net run rate back positive and also got a bonus point.

However, their qualification into the finals of the tournament depended upon the result of the game between India B and Australia A. Had Australia A lost this match, the Proteas would have made it into the final. But the visitors, courtesy a brilliant century from Usman Khawaja and a gutsy knock from Jack Wildermuth, chased the reduced total of 248 runs to make it into the final.

India A vs South Africa A – Match 9

South Africa A, who lost quite a close encounter in their previous game against Australia A, opted to bowl first after winning the toss. India A’s top order, after being put into bat first failed miserably. Only Ambati Rayudu and Nitish Rana reached the double-figure mark in the top six but they couldn’t score something substantial. The side was down to 76/6 before Sanju Samson and Deepak Chahar joined hands. They mustered 36 and 38 runs respectively as they were bowled out for just 157 runs. Dane Paterson picked a 5-wicket haul in the innings.

It was a no non-sense chase from South Africa A. They were 103/3 in the 28th over. However, the team lost two quick wickets in the next two overs. But the target being a small one, the other batsmen didn’t really have to press the panic button. The team got there in the 38th over with 4 wickets to spare. Pieter Malan was the top scorer with 47 runs. Khaleel Ahmed picked three wickets for the team.

Brief Scores:

India A: 157/10 in 37.3 overs (Deepak Chahar 38, Sanju Samson 36, Dane Paterson 5/19)

South Africa A: 159/6 in 37.4 overs (Pieter Malan 47, Gihahn Cloete 24, Khaleel Ahmed 3/45)

Result: South Africa A won by 4 wickets

Man of the Match: Dane Paterson

India B vs Australia A – Match 10

In the last game before the big final, Australia A won the toss and put their opponents into bat first. Mayank Agarwal, who was impressive with a century in the last game, scored 36 runs while his partner Ishan Kishan scored 31. Shubman Gill copped a failure and was dismissed by Michael Neser for just 4 runs. The side was down to 96/3 and were further reduced to 123/4 with the dismissal of Kedar Jadhav.

However, Manish Pandey continued his rich vein of form and went on to score his first century of the tournament after missing out on one in the game against South Africa A. With an unbeaten 117 off 109 balls, he steered the side to a total of 276 in 50 overs.

Australia A’s innings was completely scripted by one man. Usman Khawaja was brilliant on the day with an unbeaten 101. Although most of the other batsmen have failed, he kept the positive intent going and was not afraid to play his shots. Due to a rain interruption, the second innings was reduced to 40 overs with the target for Aussies being 247. After the rain break, Jack Wildermuth combined forces with Khawaja to get the Aussies to a memorable win. Wildermuth was fabulous in the last over of the game where they scored 20 runs to finish the job.

Brief Scores:

India B: 276/6 in 50 overs (Manish Pandey 117*, Mayank Agarwal 36, Michael Neser 3/47)

Australia A:  248/5 in 40 overs (Usman Khawaja 101*, Jack Wildermuth 62*, Jalaj Saxena 2/48)

Result: Australia A won by 5 wickets (DLS Method – Target: 247 in 40 overs)

Man of the Match: Usman Khawaja

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