In one of the most thrilling matches of the competition so far, Australian A beat India A by one run to progress through to the final of the Quadrangular A team series that is presently going on in Mackay.
India A skipper Manish Pandey won the toss and put the hosts into bat and that decision seemed right when Shardul Thakur removed Marcus Stoinis for a duck with the scoreboard reading 16. But James Patterson and Nic Maddinson, then put all the bowlers to the sword, putting on 230 runs for the second wicket and taking their side to a commanding position.
The former was then dismissed for 115, off the bowling of Hardik Pandya and the latter also got out soon later, bowled by Thakur for 118. With the score at 251 for 3 in 41.1 overs, it seemed like the platform was set for the middle-order to go for a final push, but that didn’t quite prove to the case as some late wickets derailed the hosts momentum and they eventually finished up at 322 for 6 in their 50 overs.
In their response, India ‘A’ got off to a slow start and lost Faiz Fazal at the score of 25. Shreyas Iyer also couldn’t get going, and was dismissed for 13, leaving the visitors 68 for 2 in the 15th over.
Skipper Pandey then joined Mandeep Singh in the middle and the duo put on 44 for the third wicket, before the latter was dismissed for 56. Kedar Jadhav then walked out to bat at 5 and looked to up the scoring rate from the outset, but fell in trying to be too aggressive, scoring a 17-ball 20 and at 144 for 4, things didn’t seem too bright for the visitors.
But that's when the turnaround was to start for the visitors. Sanju Samson joined Pandey in the middle and in a display of calculated batting, the duo put on 157 runs for the 5th wicket that brought their side right back into the contest.
Samson got to his fifty soon enough and then Pandey got to his second three-figure mark of the series off just 82 balls and the stand had put the Men in Blue well in control for a win.
However, there was to be another twist in the tale and that came when Pandey was caught behind off the bowling of Daniel Worrall for a superb 110 and then a couple of balls later, Pandya was run-out for 2 as the Aussies clawed their way back into the match.
With 9 needed in the last over, it was down to Samson to get India home, but with 3 needed off 2 deliveries, the youngster was caught by Stoinis at the boundary and when Thakur failed to get the required runs off the final ball, the Indians had narrowly missed out on winning, what as a superb game of cricket.
Final results: Australia A 322 for 6( Patterson 115, Maddinson 118) beat India A 321 for 7(Pandey 110, Samson 87)
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