India A defeated the England Lions in Northampton to end the second unofficial Test match on a high note. The day began with a 149-run partnership between Tanush Kotian (90*) and Anshul Kamboj (51*) for the eighth wicket, which helped the visitors collect 254 runs for just three wickets.
When play began on the fourth day, Dhruv Jurel and Nitish Reddy were still new to the crease. Early on, Nitish was having trouble, so Jurel hit two boundaries off Chris Woakes. Then, when he gradually calmed down, Nitish scored a boundary to third man. In defense, the two young players were equally determined, but just when their alliance appeared to be in jeopardy, Jurel was dismissed for 28 by Eddie Jack. While Nitish started to enjoy himself against the youthful legspinner Farhan Ahmed, Shardul lost little time in hitting two early boundaries off Jack. As India passed the 250-mark, Thakur hit Farhan for two straight sixes, making matters worse for him.
George Hill bowled Nitish for 42, and the same bowler bowled Thakur for 34 on the stroke of lunch. However, Kotian got off to a six off his bowling, which only made Farhan’s suffering worse. Following the interval, it was all one-way traffic as Kotian and Kamboj joined forces in the enormous stand to irritate the bowlers for the England Lions. Kamboj smashed consecutive boundaries off Hill in the following over, while Kotian hit consecutive boundaries off Farhan.
The hosts hardly had a chance as the two batters gave it their all. At regular intervals, they found the boundaries, and Kotian quickly reached his 50th off 60 balls. As the runs kept coming in, Hill and Jack were each handed brief stints of two overs, which resulted in 25 runs. India passed 400 as the Mumbai all-rounder accelerated through his innings and Kamboj approached a 50 with a six from Tom Haines. Then, on the stroke of tea, Kamboj reached his fifty before India was declared at 417 for seven.
Deshpande picked up the in-form Haines, who was nicked to Nitish Reddy, during the 11 overs that were bowled in the hour following tea. In this brief session, up to four bowlers were used, including Deshpande. However, Kamboj’s dominance continued as he caught Emilio Gay, who nicked behind, and collided with Jordan Cox’s stumps for a duck in a single over. Before the game ended, Ben McKinney scored sixteen points.
Brief scores: India A 348 & 417/7 declared (Tanush Kotian 90, Abhimanyu Easwaran 80, KL Rahul 51; George Hill 3-64) drew to England Lions 327 & 32/3 (Ben McKinney 16*, Anshul Kamboj 2-6, Tushar Deshpande 1-13)
