Hardik Pandya the saving grace in a disappointing day for India A against Australia A in second four-day game

After Day 1 of proceedings in the second unofficial four-day game held at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, it is Australia A, who hold all the aces after restricting India A to 169 for 9 in 66 overs before bad light brought an early end to the opening day.

Peter Handscomb’s decision to put the visitors into bat after winning the toss paid rich dividends as Chadd Sayers, Kane Richardson and Jackson Bird left India A in dire straits at 11 for 4 in the opening 11 overs as Faiz Fazal, Akhil Herwadkar, Karun Nair and Manish Pandey all fell for single-digit scores.

The situation worsened for India A as Sanju Samson and skipper Nama Ojha also fell cheaply, leaving them placed at 46 for 6 in the 30^th over. A big partnership was needed for the visitors at the time and that was provided by Hardik Pandya, who put on a stand of 78 valuable runs with Jayant Yadav before the latter was dismissed for 28 to leave his side at 124 for 7.

It was now up to Pandya to rally with the tail and he did so, efficiently, putting on 35 runs with Dhawal Kulkarni, en route to getting to his fifty. But the latter too fell and was followed by Shardul Thakur to the pavilion soon enough as India A reeled under sustained pressure from the Australia A bowlers.

Pandya remained unbeaten on 79 when play was called off with Varun Aaron for company.

For the hosts, Kane Richardson and Jackson Bird were the chief destroyers, taking 3 wickets apiece and were supported by Chadd Sayers and Hilton Cartwright, who took one wicket each.

This is the third straight innings that the batsmen have failed to deliver and it certainly will be a cause of concern for Ojha and head coach Rahul Dravid as they now look to make a comeback into the match.

Making that comeback will now once again depend upon the bowlers to stand up and be counted in Australia A’s first innings and if that does happen, then hopefully the batsman can stand up and put forth a much better showing in the second innings.

Earlier in the day, India A made one change to the team that played Australia A in the first match, replacing Shahbaz Nadeem with Dhawal Kulkarni.

Brief Scores: India A 169/9(Pandya 79*, Richardson 3-37,Bird 3-53) vs Australia A.