Samarth-Easwaran's century stand, Kuldeep's fifer keeps India A afloat
Bengaluru, Sep 9 (PTI) Openers Ravikumar Samarth and Abhimanyu Easwaran put on a century stand after spinner Kuldeep Yadav's fifer to keep India A in the hunt on day two of the second unofficial Test against Australia A at KSCA Stadium at Alur on Sunday.
Samarth (83) and Easwaran (86) stitched 174 runs for the opening wicket to help India A reach 223 for three in 70 overs in their first innings in reply to Australia A's 346 all out at stumps.
India A still trail Australia A by 123 runs.
Earlier, Kuldeep (5/91) ran through Australia A's tail as he sent back Chris Tremlin (16), Mitchell Swepson (4) and Brendan Doggett (8) in quick succession to restrict the visitors under 350.
Besides Kuldeep, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (3/90) picked up three wickets.
Captain Mitchell Marsh remained stranded on unbeaten 113 off 204 balls as wickets kept tumbling from the other end.
In reply, Samarth and Easwaran gave a solid start to India A with their century stand.
But just when they looked set for centuries, Samarth was adjudged LBW off Ashton Agar while Easwaran was became victim of an unfortunate run out.
Ankit Bawne (13) didn't last long and was caught by Matt Renshaw off Mitchell Sweepson as India A were reduced to 217 for 3.
But skipper Shreyas Iyer (30 not out) and Shubman Gill (6 not out) ensured there was no further damage for India
