Centuries by Gautam Gambhir and skipper Cheteshwar Pujara put India ‘A’ in a commanding position on day two of their third and final ‘unofficial Test’ against touring West Indies ‘A’ at the KSCA ground at Rajnagar here on Thursday.
At stumps, the home side were 334 for 3, securing a lead of 66 runs, with seven wickets intact.
Gambhir made 123 in 308 minutes off 236 balls with 11 boundaries while Pujara was still going strong with 139 off 228 balls with 15 hits to the fence. Abhishek Nayar (10) was batting alongside him.
For a brief period, the packed crowd to the tune of 15,000 enjoyed and cheered the lusty hittings of Virender Sehwag who struck the only sixer of the match in his 38 before getting out scooping up an easy catch at short-mid on off Miller, just before the close of play.
The morning session certainly belonged to the Indians. Two hours before lunch, the Indians hit 105 runs for the loss of just Vasudev Jagadeesh’s wicket.
Then it was the partnership of Gambhir and Pujara all the way. A number of bowling changes including the double spin attack in the form of Nikita Miller and Ashley Nurse never bothered the duo who went from strength to strength.
Pujara, looked more enterprising of the two, and went after the Windies bowling. He drove Nurse to the long off fence with a fluent straight drive to bring up team’s 100. Gambhir needing seven more for his century at tea, hit a boundary off the very first ball on return but then struggled for nine balls on 99. His wait finally came to an end when he pulled a short one from Nurse to the square leg fence.
Brief Score: West Indies ‘A’ 268 vs India ‘A’ 334/3 (G Gambhir 123, C Pujara 139 n o).
