After losing two matches on the trot, India A register a convincing win over Afghanistan A in Dambulla to book their place in the Sri Lanka tri-series final. Batting first, India scored 319/9 in their 50 overs, with skipper Tilak Varma (59) and wicketkeeper Kumar Kushagra (58) and opening batter Priyansh Arya (58) scoring vital fifties.
Vaibhav Sooryavanshi (38), Ruturaj Gaikwad (30), Nishant Sindhu (21*) and Vipraj Nigam (30) too made useful contributions to push India’s total past 300. It was the 104-run stand between Tilak and Kushagra, which induced some momentum in the innings after a brilliant opening stand of 75 between Arya and Sooryavanshi.
Faridoon Dawoodzai (2/74), Abdullah Ahmadzai (2/62) and Farmanullah Safi (2/62) shared six wickets between them.
Never in the chase
Chasing 320 to stay alive in the series, Bahir Shah (57) and Faisal Shinozada (46) put on 87 off 89 for the fourth wicket, but lack of contributions from the others did not allow Afghanistan A to get anywhere near the target. Skipper Imran Mir chipped in with 32 at the top, but that was never going to be enough.
Spinner Nishant Sindhu was the pick of the bowlers for India A with 4/31, while fast bowler Yash Thakur finished with 2/48. Anshul Kamboj, Nigam, Suryansh Shedge and Anukul Roy chipped in with a wicket apiece as India A won by 101 runs.
India A will now face the winner of the match between Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A in the final on June 21 (Sunday). However, just a win might not be enough for the Afghans, who have to win by a massive margin to book their place in the finale.
Afghanistan
Brief scores:
India A 319/9 in 50 overs (Tilak Varma 59, Priyansh Arya 58; Abdullah Ahmadzai 2/62) beat Afghanistan A 218 in 36.5 overs (Bahir Shah 57, Faisal Shinozada 46; Nishant Sindhu 4/31) by 101 runs
Player of the Match: Nishant Sindhu
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