England Lions suffered a batting collapse on Day 2 of the third unofficial Test against India. The visitors lost nine wickets for 86 runs and were bowled out for 199 throwing away the chance to take a sizeable lead. After Yash Dayal and Akash Deep’s bowling got India A back in the game, opener Sai Sudharsan’s unbeaten half-century and Tilak Varma’s 46-run knock helped India A take a 141-run lead.
Starting from an overnight score of 94/1, the hosts got a wicket in the fifth over of Day 2. Dayal got Oliver Price out lbw. Price scored 31 runs from 82 balls in the 86-run second-wicket partnership. Five overs later, opener Alex Lees got bowled by the left-arm pacer. Lees scored 64 runs from 136 balls featuring nine fours. After Dayal's strikes, Akash Deep got the wickets of skipper Josh Bohannon, James Rew, and Oliver Robinson.
Arshdeep Singh contributed with the wicket of Dan Mousley. Dayal returned to dismiss James Coles whereas left-arm spinner Shams Mulani mopped up the tail with Brydon Carse and Matthew Potts' wickets. From 113/1, England were bowled out for 199. Deep got four wickets whereas Dayal did the heavy lifting with three wickets in the first hour of Day 1.
England Lions managed to take just a seven-run lead. Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran got off to a good start but edged one to the wicketkeeper off Coles' bowling. He scored 22 runs from 37 balls. His opener partner Sudharsan batted patiently. Coles got a prized wicket of in-form Devdutt Padikkal who scored a half-century in the first innings.
Sudharsan held on to one end whereas Varma looked for boundaries. The third-wicket partnership was broken by left-arm spinner Coles in the final over of the day. The Hyderabad batter missed his half-century. He scored 46 runs from 85 balls including seven fours. Sudharsan remained unbeaten for 54 off 141 balls including five fours. India A had 148/3 on the board at the end of the day's play with a 141-run lead in the bag.
On Day 3, all eyes will be on Rinku Singh who has registered two consecutive ducks in the ongoing series. India A middle-order batters have their work cut out as they will look to set a target of over 300 in the final game of the multi-day format series.
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