THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the second straight match, rain played spoilsport at the Greenfield Stadium. But India A didn’t let that come in the way of their domination over South Africa A in this 30-overs a side contest. Still, India A notched up a 4-wicket win to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the 5-match series.
Sticking to their rotation policy, Ricky Bhui, Nitish Rana and Shivam Dube got their chance to play on Monday with Shubman Gill, Anmolpreet Singh and Khaleel Ahmed making way for them. A wet outfield in the morning meant that play started late and the visiting team’s skipper Temba Bavuma wanted his team to play without scoreboard pressure and elected to bat first.
Thanks to some ordinary bowling by the Indian pacers, South Africa A finished their innings at 207/8. Heinrich Klaasen (44, 2x4, 4x6) and Mathew Breetzke (36, 3x6) took turns to clobber Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar. It was the efforts of the spinners and India A’s fielding which put the brakes on the scoring.
Chasing a tricky target of 208, the ones who impressed for India A were Manish Pandey (81, 3x4, 5x6), Shivam Dube (45) and Ishan Kishan (40). Continuing with their experimentation, Kishan was sent to open the innings and despite losing Ruturaj Gaikwad and Bhui early and Krunal Pandya soon after, the wicketkeeper steadied India A’s chase with 70-run stand.
There after, Pandey anchored the innings. While they suffered another hiccup in the middle by losing Kishan and Rana, Pandey continued his good run of form. Although another century eluded him as he fell for 81 off 59 balls, his dismissal once again gave hope to South Africa.
Enter Dube. The hard-hitting southpaw’s pyrotechnics, which saw him score unbeaten 45 of 28, including two sixes and a boundary in the 28th over, ensured India A crossed the line and pocket the series with two matches remaining.
Brief scores: South Africa A 207/8 in 30 ovs (Klaasen 44) lost to India A 208/6 in 27.5 ovs (Pandey 81, Dube 45 n.o).