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India ‘A’ fails to take the lead

Karthik Krishnaswamy

Vijay, Pujara miss out on centuries; Redmond scalps four

— Photo: K. Pichumani

GONE! Peter Fulton’s citadel is breached by an Amit Mishra delivery on Sunday.

Chennai: Failing to build on M. Vijay and Cheteshwar Pujara’s century stand, India ‘A’ fell 39 short of New Zealand ‘A’s first innings score on day three of the second four-dayer at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium on Sunday.

Facing controlled bowling to fields choking one side of the wicket, India ‘A’s scoring congealed: seven wickets added 114 in 57 overs. Part-time leggie Aaron Redmond, with a wicket-taking mojo that came with a first-innings century, took four wickets. New Zealand ‘A’ had a lead of 146 and seven wickets in hand at stumps.

After Redmond fell early for New Zealand ‘A’, Martin Guptill and Peter Fulton batted as if intent on declaring by lunch on Monday.

Fortune favours Fulton

Fulton survived two early jolts. Pradeep Sangwan rushed in from deep mid-wicket, to spill a top-edged hook off R.P. Singh. Ashok Dinda misjudged a similar mishit off Sangwan the next over, advancing two steps from mid-on before realising the ball would carry beyond him.

Unperturbed, the batsmen went on attacking. Fulton hit two sixes off Amit Mishra’s first two overs: one over mid-on, the other over mid-off. Attempting a third, he stepped out early, and Mishra slipped a quicker one below his diagonal bat to bowl him for 33. He had put on 60 in 59 balls with Guptill.

Disgruntled

Order was restored with that wicket and Guptill and Hay looked content to see the day through. Unconditional contentment wasn’t achieved, however; a Suresh Raina off-break sneaked past Guptill’s defensive bat, rapping the front pad to prompt the raised finger. The opener seemed disgruntled as it may have struck pad a touch outside off.

Earlier, Vijay and Pujara batted on as they had done on Saturday, sedate but never tedious. After going from 90 to 98 with two glides past gully off Trent Boult, Vijay missed his hundred in the next over, reaching out to McCullum and driving early to Fulton at short cover.

Pujara moved serenely to 80, before edging Iain O’ Brein to keeper Reece Young.

Laboured knock

Coming in after Vijay’s exit, Ravindra Jadeja played with a puzzling torpor. With the lower-order sinking at the other end, India ‘A’s chance of taking the lead dwindled, and Jadeja was last out, holing out to long-on off Redmond. His 33 had consumed 125 balls.

The scores:

New Zealand ‘A’ – 1st innings: 315.

India ‘A’ – 1st innings: S. Kukreja c Young b Boult 0, M. Vijay c Fulton b McCullum 98, S. Raina lbw b Scott 11, S. Ganguly (run out) 14, C. Pujara c Young b O’ Brien 80, R. Jadeja c O’ Brien b Redmond 33, W. Saha c Guptill b McCullum 10, A. Mishra c & b Redmond 2, R.P. Singh c Marshall b Redmond 6, P. Sangwan c Fulton b Redmond 2, A. Dinda (not out) 0; Extras (b-14, lb-4, nb-1, w-1): 20; Total (in 119.1 overs): 276.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-24, 3-56, 4-195, 5-221, 6-236, 7-248, 8-270, 9-274.

New Zealand ‘A’ bowling: O’ Brien 22-9-42-1, Boult 18-5-43-1, Scott 22-9-33-1, McCullum 44-8-105-2, Redmond 10.1-2-30-4, Guptill 3-0-5-0.

New Zealand ‘A’ – 2nd innings: A. Redmond c Jadeja b R.P. Singh 5, M. Guptill lbw b Raina 41, P. Fulton b Mishra 33, G. Hay (batting) 15, J. Marshall (batting) 8; Extras (b-4, lb-1): 5; Total (for three wickets in 33 overs): 107.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-70, 3-92.

India ‘A’ bowling: R.P. Singh 5-0-18-1, Dinda 3-2-10-0, Sangwan 2-0-17-0, Ganguly 2-0-9-0, Mishra 9-3-29-1, Jadeja 8-5-8-0, Raina 4-0-11-1.

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