Manish Pandey has been in sparkling form down under and has lit up the tournament with some aplomb. The captain of the India A squad has so far scored two centuries in the tournament and has become one of the lynchpins of the Indian batting.
In today's match against Australia A, Pandey scored a breathtaking century, but his efforts were not enough as India A fell agonisingly short of the 323 runs target set by the hosts.
The Karnataka batsman put up quite a display of stroke play as he smoked 10 fours and 3 sixes in his innings of 110. However, once he was dismissed in the 47th over, his side choked and thus handed Australia A a win by just 1 run.
Pandey found good support first from Kedar Jadhav and then from Sanju Samson. The match was turned on his head when Samson and Pandey started flowing along, and thus breathed life into the chase. They added 157 for the fifth wicket in just 118 balls, and the match was seemingly in control. The Karnataka boy brought up his century in the 44th over, and India A went into the final 5 overs needing only 32 runs. However, things did not work out as expected and the rest of the batting melted after his dismissal.
Manish who has had a great start to his ODI career when he scored a match-winning century against Australia in Sydney earlier this year. He was also drafted into the team as a replacement for the injured Yuvraj Singh during the semi-finals of the World T20 in Mumbai.
His form augurs well for the Indian team which looks for a batsman as Suresh Raina has been sidelined due to indifferent form from the limited overs squad. Pandey has given enough evidence of his talent and temperament at the highest level and should now be made a permanent member of the senior side. He should ideally slot into the middle order, but he has the strokes to be groomed as a finisher too. Also, he is a brilliant fielder and thus becomes a complete and exciting package for the limited overs format.
The fact that both of his centuries came under crunch scenarios is a testament to his ability to soak in the pressure. Also, the additional responsibility of captaining the side has only spurred him to punch above his weight. The selectors will be thrilled with the progress of this young man, and come the final against Australia A on September 4, all eyes will be on the skipper of the team.
A certain success story from this tour!
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