SK Player of the day: Mandeep Singh's 95 in quadrangular series final

From being bowled out for 55 in the opening game of the quadrangular series, India A staged a remarkable comeback to eventually win the four-nation series by defeating the hosts, Australia A, by 57 runs in the final held on Sunday at the Ray Mitchell Oval, Mackay. After winning the toss and batting first, India A put up a challenging total of 266/4 in their 50 overs, in reply to which, Australia A could only manage 209 before being bowled out in 44.5 overs.

While there were a number of noticeable performances in the final, one cricketer who stood out, and who played a crucial role in shaping up the Indian innings was Mandeep Singh, the 24-year-old right-handed batsman from Punjab, who starred with his well-timed innings of 95 off 108 balls.

Recovery from an early hiccup

After losing Karun Nair early in the innings for 1, who was bowled by Daniel Worrall, Mandeep combined with Shreyas Iyer for an 81-run stand for the second wicket to lay a platform for the Indian middle-order to build upon.

After Iyer departed in the 20^th over, Manish Pandey, who had already struck a century in the series, joined the opening batsman, and duo carried the innings forward with another vital third wicket stand of 87 runs to lead India to a position of solidity. All throughout the innings, until his dismissal in the 37^th over, Mandeep held one end up and played the role of a sheet anchor, while the other batsmen around him attacked the Australians.

Mandeep’s innings of 95 runs was studded with 11 boundaries

Pandey himself scored another half century and scored 61 runs off 71 balls with 2 fours in it. The rotation of strike was excellent on a surface that was assisting the bowlers to some extent. While rotating the strike on a regular basis, Mandeep also ensured that the bad balls were taken for boundaries, as he hit 11 boundaries in his innings, and there was just 1 maiden over bowled by the Aussies for the time he was at the crease.

Consolidating the Indian innings

By the time the Indian opener was dismissed, in the 37^th over, India A had already scaled up 170 runs at a healthy run rate of 4.59 runs per over. The middle order did its job thereafter as a couple of quick-fire twenties by Kedar Jadhav and Axar Patel made sure that the team crossed the 250-run mark and finished with a decent total of 266/4.

The Australian reply was disrupted on a regular basis by the fall of their wickets, courtesy some good bowling by the Indian seamers led by Dhawal Kulkarni, a golden arm by Karun Nair – who picked up two crucial wickets – and Yuzvendra Chahal’s four-wicket-haul that came at the death and wrapped up the Australia A tail.

Quite deservedly, Mandeep was adjudged as the man of the match for his knock and India bowed out of the tournament as its eventual champions.