India ‘A’ match ends in a draw

Visakhapatnam: The four-day match between India ‘A’ ad New Zealand ‘A’ petered out to a tame draw when the visitors decided to gain some valuable batting practice in the final session of the last day at Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA cricket stadium here on Thursday. India also missed out on taking a first innings lead despite the possibility that existed.

Overnight batsman, Manprit Juneja failed to find the touch and fell seven runs short of a well-deserved double century.

After the host was dismissed for 430, from the overnight 408 for seven wickets, the visitors decided to play it safe to eventually go to stumps at 176 for three wickets. After consulting the two captains, the umpires called off the match after 51.2 overs. Earlier, the Indian first innings had lasted 11.3 overs.

Juneja (193, 362 balls, 20x4, 1x6) failed in his bid to accomplish his second first-class double century when Mark Gillespie had him caught by Corey Anderson. New Zealand ‘A’ captain, Tom Latham struck seven fours while scoring 61 runs after opener Neil Broom (0) was caught plumb in front by Kulkarni. Carl Cachopa had 13 hits to the fence in his 139-ball essay that produced 76 runs.

Brief scores: New Zealand ‘A’ 437 & 176/3 (Tom Latham 61, Carl Cachopa 76, Rakesh Dhruv 2/45); India ‘A’ 430 (Manprit Juneja 193, V Jagadeesh 91, Abhishek Nayar 58, Mark Gillespie 4/80, Doug Bracewell 3/88).

Samuel Tatikonda