India A crush Afghanistan by 7 wickets in tri-nation tourney
India A rode on three-wicket hauls from Vijay Shankar and Axar Patel, and a half century from Karun Nair, to beat Afghanistan A by seven wickets and register their first win in the tri-nation ‘A’ tournament.
This was after the Manish Pandey-led side lost a low-scoring encounter against South Africa A in the series opener.
Putting Afghanistan to bat here on Friday, the India colts bundled them for 149 in 40.5 overs with allrounders Vijay (3/24), Axar (3/33) starring with the ball. Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal also chipped in with two wickets for the Indians.
Punjab medium pacer Siddarth Kaul started the proceedings for India A removing Usman Ghani for a duck. Later Axar scalped two quick wickets, one of them was of 25-year-old batsman Javed Ahmadi (25) to reduce them to 45/3 in 16 overs.
The 22-year-old Sharafuddin Ashraf (39) was the highest scorer for the Afghan side. His quickfire knock, laced with four boundaries and two hits over the fence, came off 27 balls.
In reply, Nair (57) and Pandey (41 not out) shared a 67-run third-wicket stand to lift India A after Shreyas Iyer (20) and Sanju Samson (10) were dismissed cheaply.
Delhi batsman Rishabh Pant scored a quickfire (17 not out) in 10 delieveries to help the side cross the line in 30.4 overs.
BRIEF SCORES: Afghanistan A 149 (Sharafuddin Ashraf 39, Vijay Shankar 3/24, Axar Patel 3/33, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/42) lose to India A 150/3 (Karun Nair 57, Manish Pandey 41 not out) by 7 wickets. –IANS