India A’s Rohit Sharma (142, 18x4, 1x6) and Manish Pandey (135 n.o., 15x4, 1x6) sent the Sri Lankans on a leather hunt and won the warm-up match convincingly at the Brabourne Stadium here on Thursday.
The Cricket Club of India (CCI) ground staff rolled out a featherbed and the home team, riding on Rohit’s and Pandey’s aggressive knocks, posted a formidable 382 for six.
After that leg-spinner Karn Sharma dispatched four Sri Lankan batsmen to the pavilion with his accuracy.
The match began with an official statement that the runs and wickets in the warm-up would not count in the official record books and that the Sri Lankan captain could call upon any of the reserve players to bowl and that the conventional playing conditions (quota of overs) for a limited-over fixture would not apply.
This allowed Angelo Mathews to deploy his seam bowlers Nuwan Kulasekara, Dhammika Prasad, Thisara Perera and Lahiru Gamage and spinners Seekkuge Prasanna, Suraj Randiv, Chaturanga de Silva, Tillakaratne Dilshan and Ashan Priyanjan in the first session.
Merrymaking
India ‘A’ openers Rohit and Unmukt Chand did not show any mercy to the mediocre Sri Lankan attack.
Unmukt scored a 43-ball 54, before nicking Gamage to Sangakkara. Pandey and Rohit then battered the bowling and added 214 for the second wicket off 106 balls.
Upul Tharanga made a 75-ball 76 with 13 boundary hits. Kumar Sangakkara fell to off-spinner Parveez Rasool and Mahela Jayawardene was bowled by Karn.
Left-arm spinner Kuldeep Yadav struggled on a flat wicket, but got rid of Thisara Perera in the end.
The scores:
India ‘A’: Rohit Sharma run out 142, Unmukt Chand c Sangakkara b Gamage 54, Manish Pandey (not out) 135, Manoj Tiwary c Priyanjan b Prasad 36, Kedar Jadhav c T. Perera b Prasad 0, Sanju Samson c de Silva b Prasad 1, Stuart Binny c de Silva b Gamage 1; Extras (lb-1, w-12): 13; Total (for six wkts. in 50 overs): 382.
Fall of wickets: 1-96, 2-310, 3-373, 4-373, 5-375, 6-382.
Sri Lanka bowling: Nuwan Kulasekara 6-0-53-0, Dhammika Prasad 6-0-57-3, Angelo Mathews 2-0-22-0, Thisara Perera 6-0-64-0, Lahiru Gamage 7-0-41-2, Seekkuge Prasanna 6-0-27-0, Suraj Randiv 7-0-51-0, Chaturanga de Silva 6-0-42-0, Tilakaratne Dilshan 3-0-19-0, Ashan Priyanjan 1-0-5-0.
Sri Lanka: Kusal Perera c Samson b Kulkarni 4, Upul Tharanga c Chand b Karn 76, Tillakaratne Dishan lbw b Karn 14, Kumar Sangakkara c Chand b Rasool 34, Mahela Jayawardene b Karn 33, Angelo Mathews c Karun Nair b Karn Sharma 3, Ashan Priyanjan c Rohit Sharma b Rasool 23, Niroshan Dickwella b Kulkarni 29, Thisara Perera c Rohit Sharma b Yadav 13, Seekkuge Prasanna (not out) 21, Chathuranga de Silva (not out) 26; Extras (b-6, lb-5, w-7): 18; Total (for nine wkts. in 50 overs): 294.
Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-42, 3-111, 4-146, 5-166, 6-173, 7-224, 8-241, 9-242.
India ‘A’ bowling: Dhawal Kulkarni 7-0-41-2, Stuart Binny 7-0-40-0, Karn Sharma 10-2-47-4, Parvez Rasool 10-0-56-2, Manish Pandey 2-0-12-0, Kuldeep Yadav 10-0-48-1, Manoj Tiwary 2-0-23-0, Kedar Jadhav 2-0-16-0.