Rishabh Pant announced his comeback in style. After an injury in foot, Pant return on field as the captain of India A team and played a match winning knock. He missed century only by a few runs.
Match winning batting by Pant
Riding on a brilliant 90-run knock by skipper Rishabh Pant and solid knocks from the lower order batsmen, India A defeated South Africa A by three wickets in the first four-day cricket match on Sunday. India A now leads the two-match series 1-0. The second match will be played at the BCCI COE ground from next Thursday. India A resumed their second innings at 119 for four on the morning of the fourth and final day of the match. Pant (90 runs, 113 balls, 11 fours, four sixes) and Ayush Badoni (34 runs, 47 balls) gave a good start in the morning and added 63 runs in 12 overs.
How India A won the match
India needed 166 runs on the final day to chase a target of 275. Pant and Badoni batted aggressively. Pant smashed a six off the second ball of the day off pacer Okuhle Sele and followed it up with two fours with one-handed shots to third man. Sele conceded 14 runs in his first over of the day.
Pant, however, failed to reach his century. He failed to pull a delivery from Tian van Vuuren and the ball went high into the air. Lesego Senokwane took the catch running from second slip. It was a huge relief for Senokwane, who had dropped Pant at forward short leg off Prenellan Subrayen, who was then batting on 80. But the way Pant batted in the second innings and kept wickets for 139.3 overs in the match could be a good sign for the selectors before announcing the senior team for the two-match Test series against South Africa.Badoni also failed to pull a well-pitched bouncer from Van Vuuren and was caught at deep fine leg.
Tanush Kotian looked in good touch, scoring 23 off 30 balls, but he could not control Lutho Sipamla’s delivery and was dismissed a few overs before lunch. India added 101 runs in the first session but also lost three crucial wickets to reduce the score to 216 for seven.
India still needed 59 runs and tailenders Manav Suthar (20 not out) and Anshul Kamboj (37 not out) made crucial contributions to take the team to the target.
