Anderson, Devcich drop anchor

Visakhapatnam: New Zealand ‘A’ batsmen Corey Anderson (100) and Anton Devcich (115), both dropped for the first three-day game against India ‘A’ came up with blistering centuries at the ACA-VDCA-YSR Cricket Stadium here on Monday. Honours were shared equally on the first day of the four-day match with the Indians picking up 8 wickets while allowing the visitors to score 300 in 89 overs, when play was called off due to bad light.

Shoddy fielding helped the Kiwis reach a respectable total after visiting team Tom Latham called it right and elected to bat.

First match centurion Luke Ronchi was out for a duck and the Kiwis were again tottering at 4/43 before Anderson and Devcich revived the innings by putting on 165 runs partnership for the fifth wicket. Anderson was aggressive, putting to full use, the good flat batting track. He drove and pulled the ball to the ropes 16 times and sent two overs the fence. It was a clean innings when compared with that of Devcich’s century, who benefitted from three fielding lapses. He was dropped by Unmukt Chand in the slips; by skipper Abhishek Nayar in the covers while C M Goutham missed a clean stumping chance.

New Zealand ended the day at a decent total giving the Indians good enough total to make a match of it. Medium pacers S B Wagh and Imitiaz Ahmed bowled to a controlled line and length. D S Kulkarni, who impressed in his 13-over spell, picked up 2/26 while leg spinner Jajaj Sexena took 2/69.

Brief Scores: New Zealand ‘A’: 300/8 in 89 overs (Corey Anderson 100, Anton Devcich 115, D S Kulkarni 2/26, Jalaj Saxena 2/69) vs India ‘A’.