Bawane spurs India A but game in balance

Bengaluru, September 3: After seeing his side tumble against India A pacer Mohammed Siraj, Usman Khawaja had hoped the Australia A bowlers would copy their Indian counterpart. And they did just that to leave the four-day game in balance after the second day's play at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Monday (September 3).

India A resuming from their solid-looking overnight 41 for no loss could not dish out the desired dominant batting display and were bowled out for 274 runs for a marginal lead of 31 runs. Australia A wiped out the lead for the loss of Kurtis Patterson and ended the day at 42 for 1 - 11 runs ahead.

Siraj had pushed the Australia A batsmen to their doom with reverse swing but knowing that they might not have the skills to beat in that game, the visitors adopted a different path. Their pacemen, especially the strapping Brendan Dogget and Chris Tremain, peppered the Indians with short-pitched balls and others reaped the benefits.

The India A batsmen looked for relief against Michael Nesser, who bowled a rather full length, and left-arm spinner Jon Holland and they shared seven wickets among them. In fact, the India A were staring at the wrong end of the barrel after losing five wickets in the first session itself for 127 on the board.

Stumps Day 2: Australia A - 42/1 in 15.6 overs (Usman Khawaja 16 off 49, Travis Head 13 off 33) @paytm IndAvAusA #IndiaASeries

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) September 3, 2018

The procession was started when Mayank Agarwal, the overnight opener, edged Neser to Alex Carey behind the stumps. Ankit Bawne (91 n,o, 159b, 6x4, 3x6) and K Gowtham (31) steadied the ship and took India to 178 in a stand worth 51 runs for the sixth wicket. Once Gowtham departed, castled by a Holland arm ball, it was left to Bawane to carry the India A innings forward.

It's not an easy task to shield the tailenders and score runs at the same time but Bawane managed it with aplomb this day. In the company of Kuldeep Yadav, Siraj, Ankeet Rajpoot and Navdeep Saini, Bawane made nearly 100 runs and gave India A the innings lead - slender, important nevertheless.

Australia had of course of wiped off the deficit for the loss of a wicket but still have a good deal of work to complete on Day 3.

Brief scores: Australia A: 243 all out and 43/1 vs India A: 274 all out in 83.1 overs (Ankit Bawane 91 n.o, Mayank Agarwal 47, K Gowtham 31, Abhimanyu Easwaran 36; Michael Nesser 4/61, Jon Holland 3/89).