A dogged knock of 80 from wicket-keeper batter Dhruv Jurel and a wicket apiece from Mukesh Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed helped India A fightback against Australia A on Day 1 of the second unofficial Test in Melbourne on Thursday.
Skipper Nathan McSweeney looked comfortable against the opening burst of the India A pacers before poking at a Mukesh delivery outside off, nicking behind. Cameron Bancroft played out 21 balls before pulling a short-length delivery straight to the short square leg fielder.
The host ended the day at 53 for two in 17.1 overs when rain brought proceedings to an early close with Marcus Harris remaining unbeaten on 26 with Sam Konstas giving him company.
Earlier, India A found itself in a huge trouble inside the first 16 balls of the day after being put into bat on a lively pitch that had both swing and seam on offer for the quicks.
Michael Neser immediately struck, removing opener Abhimanyu Easwaran and Sai Sudharsan off successive deliveries in the first over. Neser was inches away from his hat-trick as visiting captain Ruturaj Gaikwad almost chopped the ball onto the stumps.
However, Gaikwad couldn’t make most of his luck as Neser eventually got him out in the next over at slips. In between, KL Rahul, sent in to open the innings, got off the mark with a four down the ground but Scott Boland found the outside edge, sending him back after a four-ball outing.
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Punching gloves with the score reading 11/4, Dhruv Jurel and Devdutt Padikkal brought the chaos under some control with a 53-run stand for the fifth wicket. While there were several plays and misses, the partnership also saw some glorious drives from the duo.
Padikkal fell close to Lunch for 26 and Jurel found a partner in Nitish Kumar Reddy to keep the scoreboard ticking. However, a poor shot selection had Reddy caught after scoring 16, off Beau Webster, who took two more in quick succession to reduce the visitor to 119/8.
Jurel initially farmed strike as he began his partnership with number 10 Prasidh Krishna. However, his confidence in his partner increased with time, with the duo stealing quick runs and boundaries at regular intervals.
The wicketkeeper-batter hit 80 off 186 balls with the help of six fours and two sixes, including a pick up shot off Boland over square leg boundary, as he took India A total to 161.
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