India A began their tour of England with the first match of the triangular series against the England Lions at the 3aaa County Ground in Derby.
India A captain Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elected to bat first. Prithvi Shaw, who was in tremendous form in the two practice matches, was dismissed for 7 runs by Helm. Mayank Agarwal (23) and Shubman Gill (37) took India to 53 runs in the 10th over, before Agarwal was dismissed by Topley and then Gill was bowled by Dawson for 37.
Shreyas Iyer (42) and Rishabh Pant (64 in 55 balls with 7 fours and 2 sixes) took India A to 148 runs when England struck twice, as Iyer was stumped by Foakes off Dawson and Shankar was LBW by Dawson the next ball for a golden duck. Chris Jordan removed the dangerous Krunal Pandya for 3.
Akshar Patel (25) and Deepak Chahar (21) swung the bat lower down the order, but England Lions bowlers were well ahead of the game plan and India A crumbled for 232 in 46.3 overs.
Tom Helm picked 3/33 and Liam Dawson starred with 4/30 for England Lions and gave them a good chance to gain winners’ points in the first match.
England A’s chase started off pretty much like India A’s as Tom Kohler-Cadmore was dismissed by Shardul Thakur for 7. But Nick Gubbins scored a brilliant unbeaten century and with Sam Hain’s 54 and Liam Livingstone’s 27; England Lions totally dominated the India A bowling attack.
Nick Gubbins ended up making 128* off 132 balls with 10 fours and 2 sixes and held the innings together.
Akshar Patel was the pick of bowlers with 1/40 in 10 overs and Shardul Thakur picked two wickets with impressive economy, but other Indian bowlers fell flat in defending a below-par total.
However, England Lions proved to be the better team on the day and won the match by seven wickets.
BRIEF SCORES:
IND-A 232 (R PANT 64; L DAWSON 4/30) lost to ENG-L 236/3 (N GUBBINS 128*; S THAKUR 2/30) by 7 wkts
