India ‘A’ comfortably outplay Sri Lanka ‘A’ courtesy of some Rahul Chahar magic

Brief scores: India A 622/5 decl. (Abhimanyu Easwaran 233, Priyank Panchal 160) beat Sri Lanka A 232 (Niroshan Dickwella 103; Rahul Chahar 4-78) and 185 f/o (Sadeera Samarawickrama 48; Rahul Chahar 4-45) by an innings and 205 runs.

India ‘A’ got off to a brilliant start in the first unofficial Test match against Sri Lanka ‘A’ in Belagavi after Abhimanyu Easwaran's double ton and Amolpreet Singh's century helped them post an imposing total 622 /5 before declaring against the Lankans on Sunday.

At stumps on day two, Sri Lanka 'A' were in deep trouble reeling at 83/4, as they trailed the home team by 539 runs with Ashan Priyanjan and Niroshan Dickwella batting on 22 runs each. The visitors were bowled out for just 232 and were forced to follow on as a result.

But things didn’t improve for the Lankans as they were bundled out for 189 as Sadeera Samarawickrama top-scoring with 48. Lankan captain, Ashan Priyanjan, made a useful contribution with 39. India pacers, Sandeep Warrier, and Ankit Rajpoot were on the attack at the start of the second innings as they caused a major collapse at the top of the order as Sri Lanka were reduced to 4/3.

India spinner, Rahul Chahar, carried on his encouraging performances from this year’s IPL win with Mumbai Indians as he picked up a total of eight wickets in the first Test. Chahar ended with 4/78 in the first innings and followed that with 4/45 in the second.