Quadrangular Series 2018, 3rd Place Playoffs, India A Vs South Africa A: Hosts Register Comprehensive Victory

India A registered a comprehensive victory against South Africa A owing to the third place playoffs by 124 runs to finish the tournament on a high. It didn’t have an eventual bearing in the final result of the quadrangular series.

However, it was a dominating performance by the Men in Blue. On the hand, India B thrashed Australia A by nine wickets in the final of the competition. India A’s victory was primarily built around useful half-centuries by Shreyas Iyer and Ambati Rayudu. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was the pick of the bowlers with three wickets.

Great all-round performance by India:

After batting first India, A posted a competitive total of 275 on the board in their allotted 50 overs. Ravikumar Samarth and Abhimanyu Easwaran were dismissed in quick succession as India A was reduced to 41 for two.

From there on it was a sensational partnership between Ambati Rayudu and skipper Shreyas Iyer which got India A back into the game with a brilliant 130-run partnership.

Iyer was the attacking batsman of the two and scored 67 off 70 deliveries. His innings included four fours and a couple of sixes. Rayudu scored 66 off 88 balls. His innings was studded with nine fours.

Nitish Rana provided a quickfire knock of 30 off 19 balls to up the scoring rate for India A. Deepak Chahar finally smashed a couple of sixes to take the total up to 275 in their allotted 50 overs.

The Proteas began in a worst possible manner losing their first three wickets for just 22 runs. It was Deepak Chahar, who provided the breakthrough of Gihahn Cloete. Mayank Markande dismissed Theunis De Bruyn while Bhuvneshwar dismissed Khaya Zondo with a brilliant delivery.

There was a brief partnership between Pieter Malan and Senuran Muthusamy which got South Africa back into the match.

Markande dismissed Pieter Malan while Krunal Pandya bagged the wicket of Muthusamy. Wickets kept falling on a consistent basis for the visitors, and they never managed to recover from the slump.

Muthusamy was the top scorer for the Proteas with a fluent 40. The visitors were eventually bowled out for 151 inside the 38^th over.

Quadrangular Series: Brief Scores

India A 275/7 in 50 overs (Shreyas Iyer 67, Ambati Rayudu 66, Beuran Hendricks 3/39)

South Africa A 151 all-out in 37.1 overs (Senuran Muthusamy 40, Bhuvneshwar Kumar 3/33)

India A won by 124 runs.