India A defeats Australia A in the 2nd unofficial Test; Kuldeep Yadav picks 8 wickets

KS Bharat starred with a brilliant century in first innings.

Australia A and India A played the second unofficial Test at Alur, Bengaluru and India A defeated Australia A easily to level the two-match series 1-1.

After India scored a massive 505 in their first innings thanks to KS Bharat’s 106 and fifties from AR Easwaran, Kuldeep Yadav, and Shubman Gill; the onus was on the Aus A batting to wipe off the 159-run deficit and pile on runs to set a big target for India A to chase.

But it was not to be, as Aus A kept losing wickets at regular intervals despite 56 from Peter Handscomb and 47 from Travis Head. Skipper Mitchell Marsh added 36 runs to his first innings’ 113. But the rest of the batting crumbled in front of Kuldeep Yadav (3/46) and K Gowtham (3/39); while Shahbaz Nadeem and Deepak Chahar picked two wickets apiece. Kuldeep Yadav picked 8 wickets in the match to go with a half-century.

Australia A innings folded for 213 with a lead of 54 runs. India A was left to chase 55 runs in 8 overs.

India lost wickets in pursue and were 25/4 at one stage with the top three – Iyer, Gill, and Gowtham all out for single digit scores. Bharat scored 12, but Bawane and Samarth kept India in the race.

Ankeet Bawane finally took India home with an 18 ball 28* runs with three fours. With this win, India A squared the 2-match series 1-1.

BRIEF SCORES:
AUS A 346 & 213 (P HANDSCOMB 56; K GOWTHAM 3/39) lost to IND A 505 & 55/4 (A BAWANE 28*) by 6 wickets