India ‘A’ get upper hand against Lions

Mysuru, Feb. 14: India ‘A’ bundled out England Lions for 140 to take a 252-run firstinnings lead and the upper hand in the second unofficial Test here on Thursday.

Following on, the visitors ended the second day at 24 for no loss in their second innings, still behind by 228 runs.

Earlier, the Lions fought back strongly to stop India ‘A’ at 392 after the hosts had resumed at 282 for three.

Test discard Karun Nair didn’t add to his overnight score of 14, nicking one to keeper Ollie Pope off Zak Chappell.

Wickets tumbled as the England bowlers stuck to their task. Only K S Bharat, a centurion in the last game, made a significant contribution, with a belligerent 46 before being the last man out.

Chappell was the best bowler for the Lions with 4 for 60 while spinner Danny Briggs recovered from a tough first day to finish with 3 for 71.

The England openers started positively, making 23 in the first five overs before Max Holden departed for 19, leg-before to Navdeep Saini.

Sam Hain, who had scored a fifty in the first ‘Test’ and Duckett couldn’t forge a significant partnership with the latter edging one to Bharat off Varun Aaron, who worked up good pace.

The Indian bowlers came to the fore, striking at regular intervals to dismiss the Lions in 48.4 overs.

The talented Ollie Pope was the top-scorer with 25 as the rest of the lineup faltered against the varied bowling attack which saw medium-pacer Saini and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem pick up three wickets each.

Aaron, who has been out of the national set-up for a while now, bagged two wickets as did Kerala all-rounder Jalaj Saxena, with his offspin.

England’s openers then survived six overs. Brief scores: India ‘A’ 392 in 144.4 overs (Easwaran 117, K.L Rahul 81, Priyank Panchal 50, K.S Bharat 50, Zak Chappell 4/60, Danny Briggs 3/71) vs England Lions 140 in 48.4 overs (Ollie Pope 25, Navdeep Sain 3/30, Shahbaz Nadeem 3/32) & 24 for no loss.