India A vs England Lions: 1st Unofficial ODI, Thiruvananthapuram - Match Report

India A vs England Lions: 1st Unofficial ODI, Thiruvananthapuram – Match Report; It was a good day at the office for Indians in the game of cricket. Earlier, we came across Indian National Cricket Team knocking down New Zealand in New Zealand after a fine period of time. Now, the junior side, India A have outsmarted England Lions to draw the first blood of the 5-match unofficial ODI series.

Sam Billings knocked an unbeaten 108*:

Getting into the details, it was India A, who won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first. The openers put on 37 runs for the first wicket before Ben Duckett walking back for 23 runs to his name. Meanwhile, the other opener Alex Davies scored a decent 54-run knock but failed to convert the knock into a big one.

Then it was Sam Hain, who also failed to convert his start of 21 runs. He was outsmarted by Mayank Markande to make scorecard read 106/3. However, Sam Billings, who is the leader of the pack stood tall for the team.

He showed impeccable composure in the middle to knock runs for his side. Billings found the fence more often and not and rotated the strike pretty decent enough. But, unfortunately, he never got the right kind of support from the other end to push the total over 300.

His unbeaten 108* helped England Lions have 285 runs on the board to defend. Siddharth Kaul, Mayank Markande and Axar Patel are the wicket-takers for India A, who picked up 2 apiece. Meanwhile, Shardul Thakur chipped in with one wicket to his name.

Ajinkya Rahane, Ishan Kishan knock fifties:

In reply, India got off to a decent start, as the openers Ajinkya Rahane and Anmolpreet Singh added 67 runs for the first wicket. Though Anmol walked back by scoring 33, Shreyas Iyer stood with Rahane to balance the ship.

After adding a 73-run partnership for the 2nd wicket, Shreyas Iyer was knocked out for a well-made 45 while Ajinkya Rahane also followed him quickly. The failure of Hanuma Vihari saw Indians in a bowl of soup for a moment.

However, Ishan Kishan’s unbeaten 57* once again brought Indians back into the game. Krunal Pandya and Axar Patel also chipped in with decent 29 and 18 runs respectively. For England, Zak Chappell picked up 3 wickets while Gregory and Briggs bagged a couple of wickets each.

Brief Scores:

England Lions – 285/7 (Sam Billings 108*, Alex Davies 54, Markande 2/45)

India A – 288/7 (Ajinkya Rahane 59, Ishan Kishan 57*, Zak Chappell 3/84)