Ashton A takes five, Australia ‘A’ make tri-series final

Australia A's second win over the hosts in the series, however, wasn't as convincing as the first.

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Ashton Agra earlier rocked India A as the home team were restricted to 258/9. (Source: BCCI)

India A were let down by their batting struggles against spin and shortage of quality spinners in their ranks as Australia A marched through to the final of the tri-series. On a slow turner the Australia A spinner Ashton Agar’s five-for enabled the visitors defeat India A by three wickets in their third tri-series game at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

It’s now an open secret that the Indians have their problems against spin; even their coach Rahul Dravid had expressed concern on the issue. The hosts had hoped to replicate their performance on Sunday when they comfortably beat South Africa A, but Australia were too strong an opposition.

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It went awry from the start. Unmukt Chand opted to bat but fell in the seventh over, trying to cut a James Pattinson delivery. The No. 3 Manish Pandey had to rush for medical treatment and ended up getting three stitches on his chin after colliding with wicketkeeper Matthew Wade. And just as Mayank Agarwal started to play his shots in the company of Karun Nair, Agar struck.

He removed Agarwal and Kedar Jadhav in quick succession. A classical left-armer’s delivery, spinning from the middle and leg, had Agarwal edging behind, and a full toss had Jadhav clipping straight to Callum Ferguson at midwicket a ball later. Soon, Agar trapped Nair in front and India A slipped from a comfortable 92 for 2 to 115 for 4, a situation made more vulnerable after Pandey’s injury.

To their credit, India A tried to rally back through the efforts of Sanju Samson and Axar Patel, but it wasn’t easy trying to score on that turner. Soon, Agar got Samson and Patel in consecutive overs, putting India A on the back foot before Pandey revived them with a 38-ball 50, ensuring they ended up with a competitive total.

Karn takes flight

Australia raced away in the chase, reaching 94 for 1 before Karn Sharma brought India A back into the game. In his previous outing he was roughed up by the aggressive Joe Burns, who was rested for this game, and Sharma found some rhythm. He grabbed three wickets — a googly cleaned up opener Travis Head, and a couple of classical leg-spinners took care of Peter Handscomb and Wade. He attacked with a nagging loop and accuracy and posed threat to the batsmen.

His wickets reduced Australia A to 178 for 6, still 81 runs short of victory. In theory it should have been a difficult task on this pitch, but India A were short of spinners. Sharma, the lone specialist, and Nair had completed their quota of overs and it was left to the medium pacers to try and stop Australia. Unsurprisingly, they couldn’t.

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Brief scores: Ind A 258/9 (M Agarwal 61, M Pandey 50; A Agar 5/39) lost to Aus A 262/7 in 48.3 overs (C Lynn 63, C Ferguson 45*, T Head 45; K Sharma 3/45)

Devendra Pandey

Having spent years covering Mumbai’s local "maidan" cricket circuit, Devendra Pandey brings a unique ground-level perspective to his reporting. ... Read More

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