PUDUCHERRY: When the 3000-strong crowd — who had filled the CAP Siechem Ground in Puducherry — cheered on as Prabhsimran Singh and B Sai Sudharsan walked out to bat in the chase of 275, little did they know the direction in which the next two hours would go.
By the time the sun went down and the breeze came at the venue on Tuesday evening, they had watched Nathan McSweeny smash a century (123 off 135 balls), Will Sutherland play a patient 77 before Suryansh Shedge ran through the lower middle-order to take 4/40 and restrict Australia A to 274. Though the pitch had slowed down through the day, with the star-studded batting line-up India A had, the fans would have felt the game was in the bag.
Enter Mahli Beardman. The 21-year-old from Western Australia took a leaf out of what the Indian pacers did and resorted to short-of-length bowling early on in the innings. And it worked. Sai Sudharsan fell to a short-pitched delivery. Devdutt Padikkal hit a fuller delivery straight to mid-off, and Prabhsimran sliced one to point. In just eleven balls, he had taken three top-order wickets, reducing India A to 23/3.
While the biggest cheers were reserved for the second and third wicket that saw Ruturaj Gaikwad, Chennai Super Kings captain, and Rajat Patidar, Royal Challengers Bengaluru skipper, walk out onto the field, respectively. India A’s hopes relied on these two senior batters to stitch a partnership and take the chase deep. However, Australia A pacers stuck to the plan of bowling back of length on a pitch that seemed to have quickened under the lights to trouble the India batters and keep the run rate in check. It all came to the fore when Gaikwad could not ride the bounce and hit one straight to the fielder. In fact, apart from Padikkal, every other top-order batter fell trying to adjust to the bounce Australia A pacers were able to extract from the surface.
At 58/4, it looked like India A’s hopes were all but over, but Patidar and Nishant Sindhu tried to build a partnership. Together, they added 47 runs before Sindhu got out, but Patidar crossed his fifty and looked to keep the team in the chase. However, he was running out of partners as Suryansh Shedge too did not last long thanks to a stunning catch from Sam Konstas in the deep. It all eventually caught up with Patidar, who tried to pull Mitchell Owen and fell for 53 runs from 51 balls. From thereon, it was only a matter of time as Australia bundled out India A for 149, winning by 125 runs in the first of the three one-dayers here.
Sutherland credited Beardman, who took 4/23, for setting up the win. “Mahli set the tone beautifully; I think he was mid-140s today, so he bowled really well, and the other boys supported him beautifully,” he said. The focus will now shift to the second game on Friday as India A look to bounce back and level the series.
Brief scores: Australia A 274 all out in 48.2 ovs (McSweeney 123, Sutherland 77; Suryansh Shedge 4/40) bt India A 149 in 31.4 ovs (Patidar 53, Beardman 4/23).