India A clinched a dominating victory over Sri Lanka A by an innings and 205 runs in the first unofficial Test of the two-match series at the KSCA Stadium in Belagavi on Monday (May 27). The hosts finished off the encounter on the penultimate day.
India A after winning the toss posted 622/5 (declare) in the first innings, with skipper Priyank Panchal (160), "Player-of-the-Match" Abhimanyu Easwaran (233) and Anmolpreet Singh (116) giving a good account of themselves to the national selectors against an attack that noteworthily had four international bowlers in Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Akila Dananjaya and Lakshan Sandakan.
Later, wrist-spinner Rahul Chahar continued his rise below the international level with an eight-fer (4/78 & 4/45) to help his team dismiss the Sri Lankans twice on 232 and 185 in successive innings. Chahar had bowled excellently well in the Ranji Trophy for Rajasthan, scalping 41 wickets in the season, having done really well for India A previously and just finished a very fine maiden IPL season for Mumbai Indians (MI).
For Sri Lanka A, none apart from wicketkeeper batsman Niroshan Dickwella among the team's batsmen put up a big score on the board. Dickwella struck a fighting ton (113) in the first innings, but other than that, Ashan Priyanjan's 49 and Sadeera Samarawickrama with 48 were the only two touring batsmen with 40-plus individual scores to their names across the two innings.
Apart from Chahar, off-spinner Jayant Yadav also bowled well to pick up figures of 2/67 & 2/58 in the two innings respectively. India A pacers Ankit Rajpoot, Sandeep Warrier and Shivam Dube had a very light workout in the game. But UP speedster Rajpoot suffered an injury scare as he limped off the field with a hamstring injury after delivering just 5.2 overs in the second innings.
The next unofficial Test will be played in Hubli from Friday (May 31) onwards.
The scores:
India-A 622 for five decl. bt Sri Lanka-A 232 in 63.4 overs (Niroshan Dickwella 103, Ashan Priyanjan 49, Sadeera Samarawickrama 31, Rahul Chahar four for 78) and 185 in 52.3 overs (Samarawickrama 48, Ashan Priyanjan 39, Dickwella 27, Chahar four for 45).
MoM: Abhimanyu Easwaran.
India-A won by an innings and 205 runs.
