Manish Pandey's 76-ball 77 the highlight of first day of India A's match against Australia A
India ‘A’ began their four-day cricket campaign in Brisbane against Australia ‘A’ on a slightly disappointing note, losing a flurry of late wickets late on the first day to be bowled out for a below-par total. Despite looking set for a big total at one stage with the score at 188/3, India ‘A’ were eventually bowled out for 230, with Manish Pandey’s sparkling 76-ball 77 being the highlight of the day.
Fresh from the title triumph in the One-Day series immediately before this, most of the Indian batsmen were also facing a very new challenge on the first day of the four-day match – they were facing the pink ball for the first time. This pink Kookaburra has a black stitching to aid in visibility, a notable difference from the ball used for the Adelaide Test.
India ‘A’ won the toss and chose to bat first on what looked like a good batting wicket. Openers Faiz Fazal and Akhil Herwadkar put up a decent show in the morning session, scoring runs at a trickle and taking care not to lose their wickets. Herwadkar received a body blow in the very first overs that laid him down for more than a couple of minutes, but the youngster was back in business after a fist pump with Fazal.
In the second session, both openers seemed more eager to get on with their scoring rate, and lost their wickets as a result. Fazal’s dismissal was especially tragic, he chopped a wide ball onto his stumps just as he was set to reach his half century. Herwadkar fell off a brilliant one-handed catch at slip pulled off by captain Peter Handscomb.
Pandey operates at a different level from the rest of the field
Pandey, who was the highest-scoring batsman of the one-day quadrangular tournament, seemed to start where he had left off, scoring runs over all parts of the ground, joined by the equally mercurial Shreyas Iyer. India’s No.3 and No.4 took the fight to the hosts, as both Iyer and Pandey crossed the 100 strike rate mark at one stage. However, while Pandey’s shots were as judicious as they were aggressive, Iyer was guilty of rash shots.
Iyer was cleaned up by the spinner Mitchell Swepson, and Karun Nair joined Pandey in the middle. While Pandey carried on scoring runs freely at one end, Nair consolidated – India moved along to a comfortable looking score before tea – 188/3, with Pandey and Nair batting.
However, disaster struck off the very first ball after tea, as Pandey’s catch was pouched. He had hit 13 fours and also the only six of the day.
Swepson removed Nair and Hardik Pandya off consecutive overs to dramatically overturn the momentum of the match. 7 wickets were quickly picked up in the last session, with the main beneficiary being the spinner Swepson and seamer David Moody, nephew of former Australia international player Tom Moody.
For the Australians, Cameron Bancroft and Joe Burns looked assured in the last 6 overs of the day in fading light, putting up 25 runs before stumps were drawn.
Brief Scores – India A 230 all out (Pandey 77, Fazal 48, Herwadkar 34; Swepson 4/78, Moody 3/26) lead Australia A 25 for no loss (Bancroft 10*, Burns 12*) by 205 runs at the end of Day 1
