Skipper Karun Nair anchored a tricky chase with a polished 90 as India-A beat South Africa-A by six wickets in the second ‘Test’ to share the honours in the two-match series.
Chasing a target of 224, India-A took 62.3 overs to cross the line as Karun got rid of his wretched form, hitting 13 boundaries in 144 balls.
Opener R. Samarth, Karun’s Karnataka teammate, hit his second half-century of the match (55) and added 74 for the third wicket with Karun.
The match-winning stand was the 93-run stand for the fourth wicket between Karun and Ankit Bawne (32).
Earlier, the Indian bowlers set up the victory as the South African second innings terminated at 177, the host losing its last five wickets for 39 runs.
Speedster Ankit Rajpoot (three for 15) and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (three for 47) shared the bulk of the spoils.
Nadeem was the most impressive among the Indian bowlers with a haul of 11 wickets from the two ‘Tests’.
The scores: South Africa-A 322 and 177 in 65.2 overs (Stephen Cook 70, Shahbaz Nadeem three for 47, Ankit Rajpoot three for 15) lost to India-A 276 and 226 for four in 62.3 overs (Karun Nair 90, R. Samarth 55, Ankit Bawne 32); Man-of-the-match: Samarth; Man-of-the-series: Stephen Cook .
