Jean du Plessis nicely blended caution with aggression to score a patient ton while Rubin Hermann missed his mark by mere five runs as South Africa A made the lacklustre India A bowlers toil, scoring 298 for 5 on second day of the first ‘Unofficial’ Test.
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The first day was a complete washout due to rain.
At stumps, Du Plessis was unbeaten on 103 off 207 balls, having completed his seventh first-class hundred in the penultimate over, guiding a Tushar Deshpande (0/48 in 16 overs) delivery past point.
The decision to bat first by India skipper Kona Bharat didn’t pay much dividends on a slow surface as it became a struggle for the four-pronged pace attack.
It was left-arm spinner Saurabh Kumar (3/83), who emerged as the most successful bowler dismissing Hermann when he was just five short of his ton. His 95 off 146 balls was laced with 15 fours and he shared a 84-run third wicket stand with Du Plessis.
The only player in this ‘A’ line-up, who has a chance of playing the ‘Boxing Day’ Test is Shardul Thakur (1/33 in 11 overs) and the Mumbai bowling all-rounder was in his element during the start of the final hour when he got rival skipper Bryce Parsons (24) to edge one to Bharat behind the stumps.
None of the Indian pacers made an impression on a surface where one needed to bend his back to get the extra bounce.
While Kumar got three wickets, but he was too slow through the air and also surprisingly bowled a negative leg-stump line to centurion Du Plessis.
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