India B subdue Australia A to win Quadrangular tournament

Bengaluru, August 29: Turnaround often comes through unexpected corners. Australia A were comfortably placed at 148/3 in the 29th over with D'Arcy Short and Alex Carry in good flow and set for a middle over push. They have negated frontline bowlers of India B too. But Deepak Hooda's off-spin crushed the momentum of Australia, also a reflection of their general struggle against spin on Wednesday (August 29).

Hooda, better known for his big hitting, produced a ball that stopped wee bit on Short that forced him to check the drive - the looping ball ended safely in the hands of Manish Pandey inside of the circle. Thereafter, the Australians struggled to get a move on and ended up with a well below par 225 all out with 2.1 overs to spare. The total was not even sufficient to stretch India B who won by nine wickets to triumph in the Quadrangular Trophy. For the record, they reached 230 for 1 in 36.3 overs.

There were contrasting half-centuries in the successful chase mounted by India B - Mayank Agarwal (69 off 67 balls) and Manish Pandey (73 off 54 balls) were aggressive while Shubman Gill (66 off 84 balls) was compact but no less effective. (BELOW WATCH MANISH PANDEY HITTING THE WINNING RUNS)

Captain @im_manishpandey seals the deal with a SIX as India B beat Australia A by 9 wickets to lift the #QuadrangularSeries 🏆.

Details - https://t.co/IQalGoXQcT pic.twitter.com/jPeOajzXT5

— BCCI Domestic (@BCCIdomestic) August 29, 2018

The only blip in their innings was the hit on the finger suffered by Ishan Kishan off pacer Billy Stanlake that forced the left-handed opener to retire hurt on 13. But Mayank and Gill stitched together a solid partnership to take India to 110 before the former was castled by Ashton Agar.

It might have been a small personal victory for Agar was clobbered by Mayank for 30 runs off 19 balls with four fours and a six. Mayank made too much room for a cut shot and the ball skidded past him to rattle the stumps. But that was the lone moment of success for Australia A as Gill and Manish Pandey rattled off the remaining runs in a second wicket stand worth 120 runs.

But the credit should also go to the spinners for keeping the Australians under check. Leg-spinner Shreyas Gopal (3-50) too chipped in with crucial blows in the middle overs as the tweakers - Shreyas, Hooda and Jalaj Saxena - plucked six wickets among them to strangle Australia A.

Brief scores: Australia A: 225 all out in 47.1 overs (D'Arcy Short 72, Alex Carey 53; Shreyas Gopal 3-50, Siddharth Kaul 2-24, Navdeep Saini 2-33, Deepak Hooda 2-41) lost to India B: 230/1 in 36.3 overs (Mayank Agarwal 69, Shubman Gill 66 n.o. Manish Pandey 73 n.o.) by 9 wickets.