Indian Test captain Virat Kohli's woeful form continued as hosts India 'A' were shot out for a paltry 135 by Australia 'A' in the second unofficial 'Test' match in Chennai on Wednesday
Chennai: Indian Test captain Virat Kohli's woeful form continued as hosts India 'A' were shot out for a paltry 135 by Australia 'A' in the second unofficial 'Test' match, here today.
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India 'A' captain Cheteshwar Pujara opted to bat first but it took Australia 'A' only 68.5 overs to bowl out the hosts as Kohli, who was the centre of attention, struggled badly during his hour-long innings of 16 that came off 42 balls.
In reply, Australia 'A' safely negotiated the final hour reaching 43 without loss in 13 overs with Cameron Bancroft (24 batting) and Usman Khawaja (13 batting) at the crease.
Virat Kohli. File pic
For Australia 'A', their whole bowling unit executed the plans perfectly. While paceman Gurinder Singh Sandhu (3/25) had the best figures but it was the left-arm spin twins Steve O'Keefe (2/30) and Ashton Agar (2/23) who dealt the telling blows at the top of the order.
Agar in fact, got the prize scalp of Kohli with an arm ball that he failed to negotiate. It was a delivery that came straight as Kohli neither went forward nor on the backfoot as he was struck plumb in-front.
It was a frustrating stay at the wicket for the Test captain even though he hit the other left-arm spinner O'Keefe for a straight six and got a boundary off Agar.
Coming back from a month-long vacation, Kohli did look rusty as he did not seem like getting used to the pitch of the deliveries.
Earlier, India 'A' captain Pujara (11, 36 balls) and Abhinav Mukund (15, 49 balls) played too slowly as only 18 runs came off the first 10 overs.
The fall started when Pujara was bowled by back-up seamer Marcus Stoinis (1/21) in a manner that has become familiar with the Saurashtra batsman. He was beaten by an incoming delivery that castled him. India 'A' were soon tottering at 53/4 with the losses of opener Abhinav Mukund (15), Kohli and Shreyas Iyer (1). Mukund was out trying to cut O'Keefe while Shreyash Iyer (1) misread the line and was bowled.
Karun Nair (50, 153 balls, 5x4) made amends for the failure in the first match but had little support from the other end.
Naman Ojha (10) played 84 balls without much success before he lost his cool and was stumped off an Agar delivery.
Once Nair was out in the post-tea session caught by Joe Burns off pacer Andrew Fekete, the last five wickets fell for 26 runs in 11.5 overs with Sandhu wrapping up the tail.
Brief scores: India A 135 all out (Karun Nair 50; Gurinder Sandhu 3/25, Ashton Agar 2/23, Steve O'Keefe 2/30) vs Australia A 43 for no loss (Cameron Bancroft 24 not out).
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