Brisbane: While Team India is busy rubbing shoulders with England on its soil, miles away from England India A challenging Kangaroos on their soil spearheaded by 30 year old Indian wicketkeeper batsman Naman Ojha who has scored three consecutive centuries so far.
Ojha hit a blistering knock of 110 runs including 18 fours and three sixes in second unofficial test in Brisbane to lead India A to the total of 501 in response to the hosts' first innings score of 423 - a lead of 78 runs. Starting on their overnight score of 165/3, India further slumped down to 199/5 on Day 3. Thereafter Naman Ojha and Ambati Rayudu (40) took over the responsibility and added 69 runs to give the Indians power to fightback.
However, with scores of 219 not out, 101 not out in the first unofficial test and 110 in second; Ojha has certainly thrown his hat in the ring and stated that he is in the mix. During the 2013-14 domestic season, he hit 858 runs at 61.28 and in IPL 7, he batted well for Sunrisers Hyderabad and fitted into an explosive top-order comprising Shikhar Dhawan, Aaron Finch and David Warner. Ojha was easy on the eye, had time on his hands to play his strokes and is one of the clean hitters of the ball.
But the most entertaining knock was yet to come from the bat of tailender Umesh Yadav. He hit five sixes and 11 boundaries to score 90 off just 66 deliveries. His dream of scoring his firs ever first-class ton was cut short by Cutting after being caught by Chris Lynn. He was the final Indian wicket to fall and had by then taken his team to a 78-run lead. Apart from bat, he also shines with the ball and struck five crucial Aussie wickets accompanied by Amit Mishra's four.
For Australia A, Chadd Sayers took 5 wickets for 84 runs and Ben Cutting also bagged 4 wickets to restrict India. Cutting was also the highest scorer for the Aussies. He scored 96 in the first innings and added 51 runs for 5th wicket with James Faulkner (94) who previously had 133 runs partnership with Peter Forrest for the 4th wicket.
The third day ended due to bad light with just one ball bowled by Umesh Yadav and Phil Hughes and Alex Doolan keeping the strike.
