India U19 crumble against Oz spinners

Opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi struck a quick hundred but India U19’s middle and lower order batters crumbled against Australian spinners Thomas Brown and Vishwa Ramkumar to throw away the advantage on the second day of their first four-day unofficial game.

Suryavanshi, resuming from overnight 81, duly completed his century (104 off 62 balls, 14x4, 4x6) and added 133 runs for the opening wicket with Vihaan Malhotra (76 off 108 balls, 13x4, 1x6).

But the rest of the batters did not follow it up, as India, overnight 103/0, were bundled out for 296 in their first innings, three runs more than Australia’s score.

In their second innings, the tourists were placed at 110/4, holding a 107-run advantage as chasing anything close to 200 in the fourth innings could be a tricky proposition.

But for that slight edge, the Aussies should thank off-spinner Brown (3/79) and the Indian-origin leg-spinner Ramkumar (4/79).

After Christian Howe’ direct throw caught Suryavanshi short of his crease, Brown and Ramkumar never allowed the Indians to settle, as the visitors plucked the remaining nine wickets for 163 runs. The next significant stand in the first innings was of 57 runs between Abhigyan Kundu (32) and skipper Soham Patwardhan (33) for the fifth wicket, but India could not even cross the 300-run mark.

In their second essay, opener Riley Kingsell (48) and Oliver Peake (32) added 72 runs for the second wicket but leg-spinner Mohammed Enaan grabbed two wickets to peg them back a bit.

Brief scores: Australia U19: 293 & 110/4 in 39 overs (Kingsell 48; Enaan 2/33); India U19: 296 all out in 62.4 overs (Suryavanshi 104, Malhotra 76; Ramkumar 4/79, Brown 3/79).