Quadrangular series: India A defeats Australia's NPS by 86 runs

India A won the sixth match of the Quadrangular A series defeating Australia’s National Performance Squad by 86 runs to secure their second victory in three matches in the series. Put into bat first after losing the toss, India A scored 304/7 in their 50 overs with opener Karun Nair top-scoring with 72 runs while almost all the batsmen chipped in with useful contributions.

In reply, NPS could only muster 218 runs as they ran out of wickets with four overs to spare despite a solid start. India A’s new ball pairing of Jayadev Unadkat and Dhawal Kulkarni were the stars with the ball picking up three wickets each while Yuzvendra Chahal also bowled economically picking up two wickets as well.

The victory was extremely pleasing considering how the side were bundled out for just 55 runs in their opening match of the series by Australia A. Sanju Samson provided the aggression late on in the innings with a 42-ball 54 which helped Rahul Dravid’s side cross the 300-run mark while Shreyas Iyer and Kedhar Jadhav also made useful 40s to provide a good score for the Indian bowlers to defend.

Arjun Nair, the 18-year-old right arm off-break bowler of Indian origin was the standout performance for NPS conceding only 36 runs in his 10 overs while he also picked up the wicket of top-scorer Karun Nair. Michael Nesser and Tom o’Donnell picked up two wickets each though the opening pair combination for the NPS were slightly on the expensive side.

Jaidev Unadkat got an early breakthrough for India A with the wicket of Caleb Paul Jewell but the pair of Hilton Cartwright and Sam Heazlett prevented any further damage with an 115-run stand for the second wicket. However, with the pair getting dismissed within the space of 9 runs and three overs, the NPS innings suffered big time as they started falling behind the required run rate.

Just like the batsmen, almost all the India A bowlers chipped in with all the five bowlers used picking up at least a wicket each to ensure that the side went on to register a win by a big margin. In the end, the NPS batsmen were left struggling to reduce the margin of defeat rather than looking for a victory as the Indian bowlers never left the opposition off the hook once the second wicket fell down.

India A’s next fixture will be on Thursday against South Africa A whom they will be facing for the second time in the series having defeated them by three wickets in the first round of matches.

Scorecard: India A 304/7 in 50 overs (Karun Nair 72, Sanju Samson 54, Arjun Nair 1/36) defeated National Performance Squad 218 all out in 45 overs (H Cartwright 65, Dhawal Kulkarni 3/38, Jaydev Unadkat 3/43) by 86 runs.