AUS A vs IND A Day 2 Highlights: Sudharsan, Padikkal Lead India A's Recovery After Mukesh Kumar's 6-Fer

Aakash Saini∙ Updated: Nov 1 2024, 1:04 PM | 3 Min Read

India A gain advantage by Day 2 over Australia A [Source: @cricketcomau/x]

Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal navigated India A back to safe waters with a 150-plus partnership against Australia on Day 2 of their unofficial four-day Test at the Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay. Mukesh Kumar, meanwhile, hogged the limelight with the ball by keeping down the Australian A lead below 100 runs.

Here's the timeline of how AUS A vs IND A panned out in Mackay:

AUS A vs IND A Highlights: Mukesh Kumar Limits AUS-A's Lead Below 100

Resuming Australia-A innings at 99-4, overnight batters Nathan McSweeney and Cooper Connolly took their team past the visitor's total by adding 25 more runs together to form a 51-run partnership. A while later, Mukesh Kumar delivered the first set of breakthroughs of the day for India A by getting rid of Connolly (37 off 60) as well as newcomer Josh Philippe (4 off 5) in quick succession.

Nitish Kumar Reddy brought an end to McSweeney's 131-ball defiance that cost 39 runs to the visitors. Prasidh Krishna, who picked up two wickets with the new ball, added another to his tally of victims in the form of Fergus O'Neill to claim figures of 3-59 from his 18 overs.

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Todd Murphy, at number nine, carved a handy 33 to stretch the Australian A total to 195 off 62.4 overs, all while Mukesh Kumar was busy grabbing the final two wickets on offer to limit the hosts' lead to 88 runs. The Indian seamer eventually finished with sizzling figures of 6-46 to soar into contention for the impending BGT Tests.

AUS A vs IND A Highlights: IND A Lose Openers Cheaply For The Second Time In 2 Days

India A openers, including captain Ruturaj Gaikwad, once again failed to survive the new ball as they both ended up making their way back to the sheds by the time of reaching 30 in nine overs.

While Gaikwad was toppled by Fergus O'Neill courtesy of a sharp catch taken by Cameron Bancroft at second slip, Test contender Abhimanyu Easwaran was runout by Jordan Buckingham for just 12 in the ninth over of the innings.

AUS A vs IND A Highlights: Sudharsan, Padikkal Lead Indian Fightback With Big 50s

Forming forces at 30-2, India A middle-order stars Sai Sudharsan and Devdutt Padikkal batted out the remaining 55 overs of the day to list sparkling half-centuries. Both cricketers took India A past the 200-run mark by stumps, thus stretching the visitors' lead to 120 runs as they overcame their 88-run deficit without further casualty.

Sudharsan (96*) and Padikkal (80*) are also inching closer to their respective centuries and will resume the Indian A total at 208-2 in 64 overs on Day 3.

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