England Lions tightened the screws on India A as they dismissed the visitors for 197 and were going strong at 159/4 in their second innings on the third day of the only four-day unofficial Test at Worcester on Wednesday.
At the close of play, England Lions were leading by 385 runs with 6 wickets remaining. Resuming at 144/4, Ajinkya Rahane (49) and Rishabh Pant (58) added another 45 runs to take India A to 189 before the latter was dismissed in the 62nd over by Chris Woakes after he completed his half-century.
Pant, who was today included in the Test squad for India’s senior team for the Test series against England, hit six boundaries and cleared the ropes once during his 111-ball innings. Rahane too was sent packing in the next over by Sam Curran as India A slumped to 189/6.
Curran trapped Shahbaz Nadeem (0) leg before in his next ball, before picking up Mohammed Siraj (1) and Navdeep Saini (0) as India A were all out for 197. In their second essay, England Lions suffered an early blow when Siraj removed former England skipper and first innings centurion Alastair Cook (5) cheaply and then sent back Nick Gubbins (9) to leave them at 25/2.
But skipper Rory Burns (38) and Dawid Malan (56) added 47 to steady the innings before Siraj struck again removing the opener in the 27th over. However, Malan and Ollie Pope (32) took the hosts close to the 150-mark by adding 70 runs.
Once Nadeem cleaned up Malan in the 44th over, Woakes joined Pope as they tried to resurrect the innings.
Brief score:
England Lions 423 & 159/4 (Dawid Malan 56, Mohammed Siraj 3/48) lead India A 197 (Prithvi Shaw 62, Rishabh Pant 58; Sam Curran 5/43) by 385 runs.