Australia ‘A’ tightened its hold on the match, strangulating India ‘A’ further and leaving little breathing space at the end of day two of the second unofficial Test here on Thursday. The visitors scored a little short of 300 runs on the day, which now sees India 194 in the red with two full days to go.
At the outset, the Indian bowlers did little to inconvenience the batsmen. A couple of edges that fell short and a couple of balls from Varun Aaron that climbed awkwardly were the only ones that seemed to spell trouble.
Leggie Shreyas Gopal strayed on either side of the wicket and was easily worked around. Pragyan Ojha, in his attempt to get the ball to turn from the middle, strayed down the leg-side too. In a little over 20 overs, the visitors scored 60-odd runs without losing a wicket.
This was until a spell of 6-1-12-3 by Ojha going into lunch pegged the Australians back. He first trapped Usman Khawaja leg before for 38. Joe Burns tried to loft one over mid-on, but Abhinav Mukund claimed a sharp catch. Then, Peter Handscomb was out for a second-ball duck, caught by Kohli at first slip. From 111 for no loss, Australia was down to 123 for three.
As on day one, it was the second session which defined the day’s play. If India had lumbered along on Wednesday, Australia motored its way through. The Indian attack didn’t build much pressure, and there was even a 16-over period when not a single maiden was bowled.
In the first one hour after lunch, Cameron Bancroft and Callum Ferguson scored at almost four runs an over. Aaron did get the ball to cut sharply into the batsmen. He even had four fielders in catching positions if he had opted to bowl a driveable length — third slip, short cover, short mid-on and short mid-wicket. He didn’t, and in a two-over spell, got hit for three fours and was duly taken off the attack.
Shreyas waxed and waned through the day. If he seemed unable to land two balls at the same place early on in the morning, he bowled a better wicket-to-wicket line going into lunch.
But when introduced post lunch, he went back to his old methods and bowled two rank short balls that were pulled for fours in his very first over. A sharp chance at first slip spurned by Kohli off a fierce Ferguson cut didn’t help matters too. This was the second reprieve for the Aussie; the first was an easy chance dropped by Shreyas Iyer at short-leg on 14.
In all, Australia scored 106 in 28 overs losing a solitary wicket. Bancroft batted beautifully throughout. He looked so assured, stepping out of the crease, almost meeting the close-in fielders eye-to-eye and the ball just after it landed.
The six to bring up his century was arguably the shot of the match, the ball immaculately hit straight over the pavilion roof never to return again. He batted close to three-quarters of the day making 150 runs from 216 balls in an innings studded with 16 boundaries and a six.
Then, under the evening sun, two men put on a show of their secondary skills. B. Aparajith bowled an impressive spell of 13-3-38-5, his first first-class five-wicket haul.
Gurinder Sandhu smashed a 27-ball 36 which included four sixes and two fours. In the context of the match, however, it was easy to decide which was of more importance.
The scores:
India ‘A’ — 1st innings: 135.
Australia ‘A’ — 1st innings: C. Bancroft c Kohli b B. Aparajith 150, U. Khawaja lbw b Ojha 33, Joe Burns c Mukund b Ojha 8, P. Handscomb c Kohli b Ojha 0, C. Ferguson c Karun b Shreyas Gopal 54, M. Stoinis st. N. Ojha b B. Aparajith 10, M. Wade b B. Aparajith 11, S. O’Keefe (batting) 6, G. Sandhu st. N. Ojha b B. Aparajith 36, A. Agar b Aparajith 6, Andrew Fekete (batting) 0; Extras (nb-5, w-1, b-1, lb-8): 15; Total (for nine wkts. in 103 overs): 329.
Fall of wickets: 1-111 (Khawaja), 2-123 (Burns), 3-123 (Handscomb), 4-230 (Ferguson), 5-258 (Stoinis), 6-279 (Wade), 7-282 (Bancroft), 8-320 (Sandhu), 9-328 (Agar).
India ‘A’ bowling: Thakur 11-2-37-0, Aaron 15-5-41-0, P. Ojha 32-2-99-3, B. Aparajith 23-4-74-5, Shreyas Gopal 22-2-69-1.
