India A pacer Mohammed Siraj was at his devastating best during the first unofficial ODI game against New Zealand A at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval on Wednesday. Siraj’s effect of destruction was witnessed when he made a complete mess of the Kiwi batsmen’s stumps.
Two of his three wickets saw the stumps flying into the sky. His second wicket, which sent Ajaz Patel packing, had the middle stumps rolling over by a fiery delivery. His third and the last wicket of the local team’s innings also witnessed a similar scene. But instead of the middle-stick, it was now the off-stump which went in the air for Jacob Duffy to walk towards the pavilion.
— Kumar Sourav (@AdamDhoni1) January 22, 2020
India A won by five wickets
Chasing 231 to win, India A were off to a great start as Prithvi Shaw (48 off 35 balls), and Mayank Agarwal (29 off 29) added 79 runs. But two quick wickets broke the flow of momentum before Indian skipper Shubman Gill (30 off 35) and Samson (39 off 21) steadied the ship by adding 66 runs for the third wicket helping India gain the much-needed confidence.
Suryakumar Yadav switched to T20 mode ahead of the IPL as he scored a quickfire 35 off 19 balls. Following, lower-order batsmen Krunal Pandya and Vijay Shankar made sure that India A doesn’t suffer any further casualties and win the game by five wickets with more than 20 overs to spare.
On being asked to bat first, most of the Black Caps batsmen got a start but failed to capitalize and gave the visiting team wickets at regular intervals. Opener Rachin Ravindra and captain Tom Bruce were the highest scorers with 49 and 47, respectively.
