Penetrative bowling by Shardul Thakur (4/32) and Kuldeep Sen (3/30), who picked up seven wickets among themselves, enabled India A to thrash New Zealand A by seven wickets in the first unofficial ODI played at the MA Chidambaram stadium here on Thursday.
The duo's effort and Rajat Patidar's unbeaten 45 helped the hosts take a 1-0 lead in the three-match unofficial ODI series. After being asked to bat first, New Zealand A was bundled out for 167 and the Sanju Samson-led side chased down the target with ease in the 32nd over.
New Zealand A side, which has players with a fair amount of first-class and List A exposure, gave a poor batting display. They were reeling at 78 for eight at one stage and at that stage, it looked like they'll be dismissed for under 100 runs. But a stubborn ninth-wicket 89-run stand between Michael Rippon (61) and Joe Walker (36) helped the visitors to get past the 100-run mark.
The visiting batters failed to adapt to the game. The top-order caved in without a fight due to poor shot selection. When the need of the hour was to have a feel of the surface and conditions, they tried to go hammer and tongs from the word go and paid the price.
Shardul, who spoke after the game, was surprised by the Kiwis' approach. He insisted that the movement that the Indian pacers got in the air in the morning helped them run through the visitors' top order.
''I think it's good a wicket. Fortunately, we got early wickets and that helped us a lot in the innings. I was actually surprised that they lost five wickets in the power play. Didn't expect them to lose so many wickets and as soon as I bowled first, I knew that the pitch is good for batting. With the games starting early at 9 in the morning, so that one hour there was something in the air and probably which helped us do that (run through the Kiwi top-order),'' said Shardul.
Shardul hit the deck in the right areas and bowled at a lively pace. The Kiwi top-order had trouble picking his length.His first spell read 4-1-7-2, which gave a solid start to India A.The Maharashtra-born player last played against West Indies in a T20I in February and has not been part of the Indian team that is playing against Australia. He featured against Zimbabwe in an ODI series last month and is hopeful of an India call-up.
''I have actually been bowling all the while. I'm bowling well and even when I played the last white-ball series, I had taken wickets and I'm looking for a national call-up again whenever they want my services,'' he said.Apart from Jasprit Bumrah, Shardul is one of the few players to play for the country in all formats of the game. The demands and stakes are high as many find it difficult to play the three formats regularly.
''I think the moment when T20 cricket was introduced, players had been challenged to switch between all three formats. And as a professional, I think it's our responsibility to switch immediately and in recent years, the switch has been happening a lot. So it's not the case where you play red ball first and you move on to ODI and then you want to deal with it (T20), It all depends on what kind of schedule is ahead of you. So I think as a player we just have to be ready and whenever we get time, apart from playing a match, or a couple of days between the series you just have to practice your skill sets and be ready for the format,'' said Shardul.