Opener Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal took a second string Leicestershire attack to cleaners as India A piled up a mammoth 458 for 4 in the second warm-up game on Tuesday ahead of the tri-nation A series contest.
India A’s team total was the second highest in all List A matches (including international games) behind Surrey’s 496 against Gloucestershire in the 207 One Day Championship. Later in the day, however, England smashed 481 against Australia in the third ODI at Trentbridge, making India A’s effort the third highest List A score of all time.
At the Grace Road ground, young Prithvi continued his red hot form with a 90-ball-132 and added 223 runs for the opening stand with other opener Mayank, who smashed his way to 151 off 106 balls before being called back to give others a chance.
The immensely talented Shubman Gill then hammered 86 off 54 balls to prop up the Indian total even as Rishabh Pant’s (13) failure stuck out like a sore thumb.
Pant had narrowly missed the bus for India team selection and the pressure showed in his game as he failed in a tie where everyone scored.
In all, the Indian innings had 51 boundaries and 15 sixes. In that Prithvi’s share was a whopping 20 boundaries and three sixes while Mayank, country’s top run-getter in the previous domestic season, struck 18 boundaries and five sixes. Shubman hit seven fours and five sixes.
In fact, Prithvi bettered his previous best of 70 scored in the earlier game against ECB Board President’s XI.
India A launched into rookie new ball bowler Ben Mike, who went for 46 in three overs, which included eight fours and a six. Both Shaw and Mayank hit a flurry of boundaries to get the desired start and never looked back.
With Leicestershire fielding most of their second XI players, the Indians made merry hitting them on all sides of the Grace Road ground.
The home team’s Pakistan origin off-spinner Ateeq Javed (2/91 in 10 overs) proved to be the most costly with 11 fours and two sixes being hit off him. Young Scot John Dickinson (0/87 in 10 overs) was also hammered by the Indian batsmen.
The visitors recorded another massive win as Leicestershire were bowled out for 177 in 40.4 overs. Deepak Chahar picked up three wickets while Prasidh Krishna and Deepak Hooda got two each.
This is India A’s second tour game in the build up to the tri-series involving England Lions and West Indies A.
(With PTI inputs)
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