India A dominated Australia A – Tri-Series Final

India A 243 (Dinesh Karthik 73, Shikhar Dhawan 62, Josh Hazlewood 3-31) beat Australia A 193 (Tim Paine 47, Hazlewood 30, Shahbaz Nadeem 3-34) by 50 runs.

The visiting India A proved their supremacy over Australia A in the final of the Tri-Series by outplaying the rivals in all departments of the game at Pretoria.

The Blue Shirts A squad smashed 243 runs before they were bowled out in 49.2 overs and the Kangaroos A team managed 193 when their innings was squeezed with 21 balls to spare.

India A, Australia A and South Africa A were the three participating  teams in the Tri-Series tournament and the final was played on Wednesday, August 14, 2013, at LC de Villiers Oval, Pretoria.

Earlier, the skipper of India, Cheteshwar Pujara, won the toss and preferred to set a target for the rival team. The opener, Shikhar Dhawan, continued with his brilliant form by hitting 5 boundaries in five overs but his two partners left him until then at 34. Dinesh Karthik arrived in the park next, he got into rhythm straight away and sent the ball out of the fence regularly with Dhawan. The first hundred of the innings appeared on board in the 18th over and Shikhar Dhawan reached his fifty in the next one. Dinesh Karthik followed him in the 20th over while adding another fifty to his List A games.

Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik - Solid foundation for the victory
Shikhar Dhawan and Dinesh Karthik – Solid foundation for the victory

The batsmen enhanced the score to 142 in 23.3 overs after adding 108 runs for the third wicket when Shikhar Dhawan was gone for 62 off 65 with 9 fours. Karthik was clean bowled by Nathan Coulter-Nile for 73 off 75 with 10 fours after the addition of 16 runs to the total. Ambati Rayudu and Widdhiman Saha scored 34 and 31 runs as India A powered 243 when their innings was folded back with two balls remaining.

Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile were the top wicket takers with three each, Moises Henriques held two whereas Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh got one wicket each.

Australia A started off well with Aaron Finch along with Shaun Marsh and they scored 30 runs in four overs with 2 sixes and 3 fours. The stumps of Finch were dislodged by Mohammed Shami for 20 and Marsh followed him three runs later for 11. The Men in Blue A bowlers got hold of the situation and almost swept through the middle order batting of the Aussies A and they were struggling at 5-53 in 14 overs. Moises Henriques and Tim Paine tried to stabilise the innings.  The first dispatched two sixes in the 19th over but was caught by Suresh Raina off Shahbaz Nadeem for 20.

Paine kept on securing his end with as the 7th wicket fell at 88 in 23.4 overs when Josh Hazlewood joined in next. They kept on creeping with odd boundaries and took the score to 142 after 38.2 overs when the latter lost his wicket for 30 off 44 with 1 six and 1 four. Tim Paine was the top scorer with 47 off 76 comprising 2 fours and the entire Australi A team was sent back to the pavilion for 193 in 46.3 overs.

Shahbaz Nadeem was the supreme bowler with three wickets, Mohammed Shami got two whereas Suresh Raina, Ishwar Pandey and Parvez Rasool shared one wicket each.

India A clinched the final with a sufficient margin of 50 runs and grasped the title.


Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.