Carter missed out on a double century; India-A is off to a good start

To a few spectators at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday, Joe Carter may have looked like he was trying hard to get out with a maiden double century. He succeeded in his second attempt – as many balls – as he stepped on Kuldeep Yadav and was stumped by KS Bharat.

Then he was in 197. The New Zealand-A batsman later revealed that the team was looking to declare before tea.

Excellent knock

Thanks to his brilliant knock (197, 305b, 474min, 26×4, 3×6), the visitors scored 400 in their first innings on the second day of the first ‘Test’. The next highest score in an innings was 32 by overnight batsman Sean Solia. The duo added 87 runs for the sixth wicket when they resumed at 156 for five.

At the end of the second day, India-A scored 156 runs for the loss of 1 wicket. Opener Abhimanyu Easwaran remained unbeaten on 87 (120b, 10×4, 1×6).

Earlier, Carter, who was cautious in his approach on the rain-affected first day, looked more aggressive on the second day. Other batsmen failed against the India-A attack led by seamer Mukesh Kumar (five for 86). He grew in confidence and played some beautiful strokes like a brilliant straight six from Kuldeep.

Carter looked confident stumping against Kuldeep, who was out when he tried to accelerate, with not many wickets in hand. After coming up on one down, he was the ninth man to go.

After New Zealand folded the innings and took the opening tea, skipper Priyank Panchal (47, 83b, 4×4) and Abhimanyu Easwaran added 123 runs for the first wicket to give India-A a spirited start. Rachin Ravindra spin bowling.

Scores:

New Zealand-A – First Innings: Chad Bowes c Ruthuraj b Mukesh 5, Rachin Ravindra c Patidar b Nagwaswalla 12, Joe Carter st. Bharat b Kuldeep 197, Mark Chapman c Abhimanyu b Dayal 15, Robert O’Donnell lbw b Mukesh 24, Cam Fletcher lbw b Mukesh 13, Sean Solia c Patidar b Mukesh 32, Michael Rippon b Sarfaraz Beshke 21, c Bharat Bawan Beshke 19, Joe Walker c Abhimanyu b Sarfaraz 22, Jacob Duffy (not out) 17; Extras (b-1, lb-3, nb-16, w-3): 23; Total (in 110.5 overs): 400.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-28, 3-51, 4-100, 5-149, 6-236, 7-307, 8-342, 9-361.

India-A Bowling: Mukesh 23-5-86-5, Dayal 21-3-75-1, Nagwaswala 23-4-75-1, Kuldeep 34-6-119-1, Tilak 4-0-9-0, Sarfaraz 5.5-0- 32-2.

India-A – First Innings: Priyank Panchal C O’Donnell B Ravindra 47, Abhimanyu Easwaran (batting) 87, Ruthuraj Gaikwad (batting) 20; Extras (lb-1, w-1): 2; Total (per wicket in 37 overs): 156.

Fall of wicket: 1-123.

New Zealand-A Bowling: Duffy 7-0-33-0, Van Beek 6-1-34-0, Solia 5-0-21-0, Ravindra 10-1-22-1, Rippon 6-1-22-0, Walker 3-0 -23-0.