While the Indian team slogs it out in Sri Lanka, the second best set of players are away on a tour to show the selectors the talent they possess. Playing in South Africa, the India A team faced Afghanistan in the tri-nation series yesterday. The captain, Manish Pandey who has had some bad luck with injuries off late roared back to form with some excellent batting.
He smashed 86 runs off 87 balls as India cruised to a comfortable 113 run victory.
Dominated from the start:
Right from the first innings, India A was able to dominate their relatively weak opponents by putting up a big score of 322 for the loss of just 5 wickets. Thanks to half-centuries from Pandey and Rishabh Pant who hit 60 off 59 and Krunal Pandya (48 off 27), India A never looked uncomfortable at any point in the game.
During his innings, Pandey smashed nine boundaries and a solitary six while Pant was able to get five boundaries and a six in his innings. Pandya smashed seven boundaries during his blitz with a six to help India A reach the big score.
Tame reply:
The Afghanis were not able to get a foothold in the match and despite getting decent starts, they were never at ease. Javed Ahmadi hit 21 while Younas Ahmadza and Rahmat Shah hit 28 before falling.
They were in trouble at 98 for 5 before Najubullah Zadran hit a spirited 62 off 78 balls to get some respite back for them.
Mohammed Siraj took 3 wickets while Vijay Shankar and Siddharth Kaul both grabbed 2 apiece as Indian team took the victory comfortably.
