Shreyas Iyer made a match-defining 77 before the bowlers, led by left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed, guided India-A to a 65-run win over West Indies-A in a low-scoring, first unofficial One-Day International here on Thursday.
India-A was in a spot of bother at 22 for three after opting to bat before Shreyas and Hanuma Vihari put on 95 runs for the fourth wicket and laid the foundation as the team posted 190.
At a time when the spotlight is on middle-order problems of the senior team following India’s semifinal defeat to New Zealand in the World Cup, Shreyas made a case for himself with a timely knock that came off 107 balls and was studded with eight fours and a six.
Shreyas had the challenging job of repairing the innings after openers Rituraj Gaekwad and Shubman Gill, and skipper Manish Pandey departed inside the first eight overs.
Shreyas, in the company of Vihari, who made a patient 34 off 63 balls, resurrected the innings, but once the duo departed, the innings fell apart again.
West Indies-A skipper Roston Chase (four for 19) ran through India’s lower-order with his off-spin.
Pacer Akeen Jordan (three for 43) too shone with the new ball for the Caribbeans.
Defending the total, Khaleel (three for 16 off eight overs) produced a fiery opening spell.
He was ably supported by the spin trio of Axar Patel (two for 16), Rahul Chahar (two for 32) and Washington Sundar (two for 37) as India-A bundled out West Indies-A for 125 in 35.5 overs.
The scores :
India-A 190 in 48.5 overs (Shreyas Iyer 77, Hanuma Vihari 34, Roston Chase four for 19, Akeen Jordan three for 43) bt West Indies-A 125 in 35.5 overs (J. Carter 41, Rovman Powell 41, Khaleel Ahmed three for 16) .
