Pant sizzles in his 1st India A game with a brilliant half century
Mumbai: Flavour of the season Rishabh Pant (59, 36b, 8×4, 2×6) sizzled in his first ever match for India A and his smashing knock overshadowed senior pro Ajinkya Rahane’s (91, 83b, 10×4, 1×6) compact innings as a new-look India A side cruised to a six-wicket victory over England in the second warm-up game here, Thursday.
Chasing a target of 283, India A knocked off the runs in just 39.4 overs. Sheldon Jackson (59, 56b, 7×4) also did his bit adding 119 runs for the opening stand with Rahane while Suresh Raina (45, 34b, 7×4) did the finisher’s job. When the India A side reached the victory target, Deepak Hooda (23 n o) and Ishan Kishan (five n o) were at the crease.
Earlier, England won the toss and decided to bat and were bowled out for 282 with seven deliveries remaining in their innings. J&K off-spinner Parvez Rasool (3/38) bowled brilliantly to trigger a late-order collapse in the England innings which saw them fall way short of the 300-run mark.
However it was Pant, whose performance was awaited and he didn’t disappoint the CCI crowd. Such was his dominance that he contributed 59 in his second wicket stand of 78 runs with Rahane in 8.4 overs.
Earlier opting to bat, England started well with Jason Roy (25, 15b, 6×4) and Alex Hales (51, 53b, 8×4) putting on 42 runs. One-down batsman Jonny Bairstow (64, 65b, 8×4) also looked good, but it was the dismissal of Hales that triggered a collapse which saw England lose five wickets for 48 runs. Both skipper Eoin Morgan (0) and Jos Buttler (0) failed to trouble the scorers.
Ben Stokes (38, 56b, 3×4) started well but failed to continue. At one stage England were reduced to 211 for nine, before a 71-run partnership for the last wicket between Adil Rashid (39, 42b, 4×4) and David Willey (38 n o, 30b, 2×4, 2×6) took them past the 275-run mark.
Rasool was well-supported by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (2/41) and paceman Ashok Dinda (2/55). However, R Vinay Kumar was a disappointment.
PTI
