A big roar went up in the stadium when Rishabh Pant walked into the middle with India A wobbling in its chase of 222. He was restrained early in his innings and even enjoyed a life but Pant changed the gears at the right time as India A piled on the misery of England Lions by scoring a six wicket win in the fourth one-day match at the Sports Hub here on Tuesday.
Pant (73 not out) and Deepak Hooda (47 not out) turned the match around with their unbroken 120-run stand for the fifth wicket which saw India A canter home with 21 balls to spare.
The turning point of the match came when Pant, batting on 30, mistimed a shot off leg spinner Mathew Carter but Ollie Pope running backwards at deep cover dropped a difficult chance. Pant made England Lions pay dearly for that miss. Deepak and he played the big shots against spinners in the death overs to take India to an easy win.
After early loss of Ruturaj Gaikwad, K.L. Rahul (42), who reined in his aggression, and the free stroking Ricky Bhui (35) were chipping away at the target when Steven Mullaney (1/26) and Will Jacks (2/35) bowled a tidy spell in the middle overs to pull back the visitors into the match.
At 102 for four, England Lions sensed a chance but it failed to grab the chances and allowed the match to drift away
Earlier, the England Lions’ innings meandered along at slow pace until it was given the impetus by late surge from Steven Mullaney (58 not out) who innovated with a cheeky unorthodox shots, and Jaime Overton.
Ollie Pope made a gritty half-century (65) and added 66 runs for the sixth wicket with Steven to rebuild the innings which was put in disarray by Shardul Thakur’s (four for 49) opening burst with new ball.
Spin twins Rahul Chahar and Jayant Yadav then put in a tidy shift in the middle overs as England struggled to force pace on the slow surface.
The late assault in the death overs still left England with an underwhelming total of 221 for seven.
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