India A Series ....

[prasen9]

Imho, Unmukt needs some more matches before we want him in tests. Although, he has performed reasonably in First Class cricket. He has not done well in List-As and T20Is. He has not failed totally in List-As either. I would put him behind Rayudu. Anyway, Unmukt is possibly going to replace Sehwag and Rayudu a MO bat. We need MO bats now because Sehwag will not be written off so easily. If Sehwag or Gambhir are injured or dropped, the candidates to replace them are Vijay, Mukund, Rahane, and Unmukt. Dhoni will perhaps prefer the left-handed Mukund. I would be fine with trying Rahane for tests and Unmukt for T20Is.

Note that this is in essence India-B. The ROI team would beat this India-A team hands down.

[prasen9]

In the second innings, Unmukt failed, Mukund played a cameo. Anustup has scored 52. Mandeep 29. The last two are not out. Mandeep is perhaps the one among the youngsters who is most highly rated and has had some experience albeit not much in the domestics and done well whenever he got a chance. He is not yet 21 and an India U-19 star. I think instead of pitchforking Unmukt directly, maybe Mandeep is a better choice if you want to choose a raw youngster. Among the bowlers, the only ones with averages under 30 are Vinay Kumar and Shami Ahmed. Both of them bowled decently and got 2 and three wickets respectively. Ex-India test player, Unadkat, did not get any. What Rahul Sharma is doing in the longer version of the game instead of say Iqbal Abdullah or the young chap from Mumbai who played well in WI-A tours, who knows. Menaria should be asked to bowl and develop his bowling more.

[prashanthm]

Rayudu is not playing the 2nd Unofficial test, not sure of the reasons.......

Mandeep has finished his century, while Menaria is batting on 99....
Anustup Majumdar scored a 50 earlier....

Ind 'A' 302/4.......

[prashanthm]

India 'A' 433/4 - Day 1 stumps...

Mandeep 169*(234) & Menaria 164*(169), with big centuries, have put together 294 runs for the 5th wicket so far....

[prasen9]

Mandeep Singh is special. Hope he is nurtured well. I don't mind tossing him a few T20Is or so to get him a flavor of international cricket. Get Menaria to improve his bowling fast. We need all-rounders. He is a very good batsman though.

[prashanthm]

Mandeep missed out on a double, finishing on 193..., while Menaria was bowled on 173...

IND 'A' 554/8 decl.
NZ 'A' 161/3

[prashanthm]

Rajput pleased with performance of India A

Praises galore for India 'A' team after 'satisfying' NZ visit

Ambati Rayudu did very well in the one-dayers and in the first Test before he picked up a finger injury (clipped nail)

[PKBasu]

A strong India A side are in South Africa, led by Pujara (surprisingly picked as captain ahead of team-mate Raina). They start with a tri-series including Aus A. The latter were reeling at 152/8 against India A, but Glenn Maxwell (122*) has put on a 123-run 9th wicket stand with Hazlewood (21*). Unadkat's inadequacies were ruthlessly exposed. Pujara failed to get his best pacer, Shami, to complete his overs -- or even the effective spinners (Nadeem, Raina and Dhawan). Instead Kaul was hammered for 23 runs in the last over, and Aus A finished on 298/8.

Tough ask for Ind A on a winter's day in Pretoria.

[PKBasu]

Rayudu (67* off 51 balls) taking India comfortably towards victory -- with 23 runs required off the last 24 balls, after Rayudu smashed Fawad Ahmed for 16 runs (including two sixes) off the 46th over. Earlier, Raina (83 off 79 balls) and Rohit (66 run out) had set up the chase nicely.

[PKBasu]

DK has worked hard on making those final 23 runs very difficult indeed to get. 12 balls gone (of the 24 that remained), and just 7 runs added for the loss of 1 wicket (DK's). In the 47th over, 2 runs were scored -- 1 run off 1 ball by Rayudu, 1 run off 5 balls by DK!! How does he get to stay in the vicinity of the Indian team regardless of failure after failure?

[PKBasu]

The 49th over is a double-wicket maiden, as Rayudu falls first ball, Binny for a duck off the 4th ball. India A need 16 off the last over: defeat suddenly staring them in the face.

And India A lose by 7 runs. Surely, Dinesh Karthik should be banished from the team (although Binny too should have done better). Wriddhiman is waiting in the wings. Interestingly, Parvez Rasool wasn't picked for today's match -- Shahbaz Nadeem being picked ahead of him, and doing well with the ball.

[gbelday]

The 49th over is a double-wicket maiden, as Rayudu falls first ball, Binny for a duck off the 4th ball. India A need 16 off the last over: defeat suddenly staring them in the face.

And India A lose by 7 runs. Surely, Dinesh Karthik should be banished from the team (although Binny too should have done better). Wriddhiman is waiting in the wings. Interestingly, Parvez Rasool wasn't picked for today's match -- Shahbaz Nadeem being picked ahead of him, and doing well with the ball.

Damn it, Rayudu. Learn to finish it off. What's up with not picking Parvez? My initial thoughts are that he wasn't impressive in the practice sessions. Also, locker room camaraderie (not gelling with the team mates). I hope he is not a recluse. Wow, I surely know how to come up with theories

[prasen9]

A good innings by Rayudu but I hope he is not the young SRT of old, who used to take us close to the finish line and then got out. The less said about Karthik the better. I won't even waste words here on him. Then the bowlers and the captain. Bizarre bowling choices by the captain and uselessly crappy end-over bowling. But the other people who were responsible were the openers. Perhaps you can go slow in the opening overs and Dhawan played only a few balls but Rohit played too slowly. You need to be faster than that chasing 298. At least Rohit is consistently scoring the runs. Now, if he can learn to get more singles off the dot balls then he will be a complete player. Hope Rayudu learns to finish from Dhoni. I was almost going to say that PKB and Gautam were right about Rayudu and I was wrong, but, I will hold on to that until he plays a long match winning inning Promising improvement on part of Rayudu though.

[sameerph]

Btw, what are Rohit, Raina , Karthik & Dhawan doing in the A team ? Are'nt they part of our first XI & this is supposed to be an opportunity for aspiring players to showcase their talent.

[PKBasu]

Rohit, Raina, Karthik are not in the Test XI (or even squad), and this A team is supposed to play quite a few first-class games -- which explains their selection. Similarly, Pujara is captain because he is not a regular member of the ODI squad or XI. But I think Raina in particular shouldn't be playing the 50-over games as he is a well-established member of the ODI squad. The purpose of this tour, of course, is to get the fringe/upcoming players used to South African conditions before the tour there later in the year. Dhawan, of course, is now a fixture of both the ODI and Test XIs, and so should have no place in the A side. But he has played just one test, so I think the selectors were keen to give him more match-practice in these conditions.