India A secure easy 6-wicket win courtesy Manan Vohra and Mohit Sharma

Mohit Sharma shone with the ball for India A

India A, with 10 points from 3 games, have risen to the top of the table in the Quadrangular ‘A’ series after fine performances from Manan Vohra and Mohit Sharma gave the team a comfortable 6-wicket victory over National Performance Squad (NPS).

NPS, who won the toss and chose to bat, finished their 50 overs at a mediocre score of 217 for the loss of 9 wickets, with South Australian batsman Travis Head, who made 56 off 69 balls, being the only one to make a meaningful contribution.

Mohit Sharma was the pick of the bowlers for the visitors, with figures of 4/48 from 10 overs. All the other bowlers provided good back-up to Mohit and did not allow the home side to get any momentum in their innings: Akshar Patel, left-arm spinner, took 2 wickets while Dhawal Kulkarni, Rishi Dhawan and Karn Sharma chipped in with a wicket each.

Manan Vohra, who replaced the out of form Unmukt Chand at the top of the order, made an instant impact as he got the team off to a rollicking start. There was a little bit of a wobble when skipper Robin Uthappa, Manish Pandey and Manoj Tiwary were dismissed in quick succession, leaving the team at 88/3 with 130 runs still to get. Ambati Rayudu, along with Vohra, ensured that there was no further panic as they put on a 108 run 4th wicket partnership.

With India A on the verge of completing the win, Vohra was dismissed for 88 off 95 balls, falling just 12 runs short of what would have been a well-deserved century. Rayudu, on 70*, and Sanju Samson, on 2*, finished the job shortly after, thereby completing the run-chase in just 38 overs with a bonus point to boot for the efforts.