Wriddhiman Saha and Shivam Dube put together a 124-run partnership for the sixth wicket to help India A take the first innings lead against West Indies A in the first unofficial Test in Antigua on Thursday.
The visitors reached 299/8 in reply to the Windies’ 228/10 at stumps on day two at the Vivian Richards Stadium.
India A were in a spot of bother at 169/5 after resuming the day at 70/1. Opener Priyank Panchal (49), No 3 Shubman Gill (40) and No 4 Hanuma Vihari (31) all got starts but failed to covert. The in-form Kona Srikar Bharat at No 5 then perished for a first-ball duck.
However, India A were rescued by Saha batting at No 6 and Dube after him as they put on a fluent partnership. The left-handed Dube hit four sixes and seven fours in his 108-ball 71 but got out just as he looked set to get a century.
The experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Saha, though, carried on and remained unbeaten on 61 off 146 with six fours.
West Indies A took away the momentum right at the end of day’s play as right-arm pacer Miguel Cummins dismissed Krishnappa Gowtham and Shahbaz Nadeem in the final over of the day.
On day one, India were comfortably placed after bowling out West Indies A for 228. Left-arm spinner Nadeem was the pick of the bowlers for India A, returning impressive figures of 5/62 in 22 overs.
Bowling first after the hosts decided to bat, India A were well served by their seamers and spinners, who did not give West Indies A any leeway to reduce them to 97/5.
Right-arm pacer Mohammed Siraj (2/61) did the early damage before Nadeem ran through the middle-order to bowl out the hosts in 66.5 overs in the final session on Wednesday.
