India A suffer huge defeat against England Lions
After defeating West Indies A in a two-match Test series, the India A cricket team succumbed to a huge defeat against the England Lions in England.
Chasing 421 for victory in the second innings of the match, India A got off to the worst possible start as both the openers - Murali Vijay and Prithvi Shaw were dismissed for ducks.
This was Vijay's second consecutive failure. He managed to score just 8 runs in the first innings. Shaw, on the other hand, had scored a half-century in the first innings.
The Lions bowlers proved to be too good for the Indian batsmen, who had no answer to the pace and swing. James Porter, Sam Curran, and Dominic Bess picked up two wickets each while Chris Woakes, Fisher, and Leach ended up with one wicket each to their name.
The only lone stars in the Indian batting line-up were Ajinkya Rahane and Rishabh Pant, who scored 48 and 61 respectively. Apart from Pant, no other batsmen managed to score a half-century in the second innings while chasing. In fact, Rahane was unfortunate to not score a half-century in the match as he was dismissed for 49 in the first innings.
Pant has been in great form in the series so far and was rewarded with a call-up to the senior side for the Test series which begins on August 1.
Vijay's failure, on the other hand, does not bode well for India as he is set to open the innings along with Shikhar Dhawan. Nair, too, has not been in great form off late and will look to pull up his socks in order to be given a chance against England in the upcoming series.
Mohammed Siraj was the star with the ball for the India A side, picking up 7 wickets throughout the match. However, he has not been included in the squad for the first three Tests against England.
Brief scores: England Lions 423 (Alastair Cook 180; Mohammed Siraj 4-79) & 194/5d (Dawid Malan 56; Mohammed Siraj 3-55) beat India A 197 (Prithvi Shaw 62; Sam Curran 5-43) & 167 (Rishabh Pant 61; Sam Curran 2-17) by 253 runs.