Karun Nair scores a magnificent Double Century as India A’s match against England Lions ends in a draw

Initial Overs

Coming into the match, England Lions skipper James Rew won the toss and decided to field first. In the England Lions, only leg spinner Rehan Ahmed is a known entity in the playing eleven. On the other hand, India A have got players like Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Karun Nair, Dhruv Jurel, Nitish Reddy and Shardul Thakur. India A two openers skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran and Yashasvi Jaiswal came into bat and played quite steadily for the initial period of the match. 

Easwaran and Jaiswal fell cheaply

In the first session, Rookie England Lions bowlers kept their line and length tight and didn’t allow the two India A openers to break free. Eventually in the fifth over, Josh Hall the left arm pacer got rid of the India A skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran lbw and India A lost their first wicket for the score of 12 runs in 5.5 overs. 

Yashasvi Jaiswal played a nice cameo as he hit three glorious boundaries and a humongous six off the left arm pacer Josh Hall. On the other side, Karun Nair who is making a comeback at the India Test squad has started his innings solidly and so far he has hit two gorgeous boundaries and right now he is on 14 runs off 30 balls. 

As the partnership between Yashasvi Jaiswal and Karun Nair  was flourishing, Jaiswal got out to Eddie Jack for 24 runs. The partnership was broken for 39 runs as India A lost their second wicket for 51 runs. Currently, Sarfaraz Khan came into bat and after being left out from the senior Test squad he has a point to prove. Sarfaraz is a free flowing batsman and yet another partnership is starting to settle down as Karun Nair is on 19 not out off 47 balls and Sarfaraz Khan is on 13 runs off 27 balls hitting two boundaries.Currently both the batsmen are performing nicely as the partnership is beyond 30 runs. And now Lunch has been taken and after 27 overs India A is 86/2. The match is poised nicely at lunch time. 

Karun-Sarfaraz partnership 

Then after lunch time, Karun Nair and Sarfaraz Khan had built a humongous partnership. In spite of not getting selected in the Test squad, Sarfaraz showed great composure along with Karun Nair. Both of them were looking very busy and played a number of attractive shots and didn’t allow the England Lions bowlers to settle down at all. Then finally at the 55th over, again Josh Hull struck and broke the mammoth  partnership of 181 and Sarfaraz Khan got out for 92 and astonishingly fell 8 runs short of a hundred. 

India A breach 400 runs

This wicket didn’t give any shy of relief to the England Lions bowlers as wicketkeeper batsmen Dhruv Jurel came into the innings and again stretched a long partnership with Karun Nair. Dhruv Jurel too played some attractive shots in his innings of 82 not out in just 104 balls where he has hit 9 fours and a six and showed great calmness and maturity alongside Karun Nair and frustrated the England Lions bowlers for rest of the day. The Jurel-Sarfaraz duo batted for the remaining 34 overs and showed good temperament. Later at the end of the day, Dhruv Jurel and Karun Nair piled up 177 runs partnership and India A breached the 400 run mark and finished with 409/3 at stumps after the end of Day 1. On the 2nd day, Karun Nair will look to reach the double century and Jurel will look to score a century as these batters will look to push for a strong case in the Test team selection next month. 
 

Karun Nair scores double century as India A scores 557 in the first innings

Karun Nair’s fantastic double century of 204 runs and alongside Dhruv Jurel’s 94 runs and Sarfaraz Khan’s 92 runs has propelled India A to a huge total of 557 runs against the England Lions. And as far as England Lions bowling is concerned, Josh Hull and Zaman Akhter have picked up three wickets each. In his knock of 204, Karun has hit flurry of boundaries and showed great composure and character. 

Karun Nair has also shared a 195 run partnership with the vice captain Dhruv Jurel who scored 94 runs. Nitish Reddy failed to score much as got out cheaply. In the end the likes of Shardul Thakur, Harsh Dubey and Anshul Kamboj cheaped with some handy runs as India A were bundled out for 557 runs.

England Lions Solid Reply and match ends in a draw

In reply the England Lions stunned everyone as they overtook the India A score and posted a mammoth total of 587 runs. As the Sussex opener Tom Haines played brilliantly and scored a massive 171 runs, missed the double century not by too much. And then Max Holden and Dan Mousley also scored centuries with 101 runs and 113 runs and gave a huge toil to the India fast bowlers. And as far as Mukesh Kumar is concerned, he has picked three wickets and Shardul Thakur picked a couple of wickets too. 

Trailing by 30 runs, India A started brilliantly as the openers stitched a solid partnership of 123 runs as Yashasvi Jaiswal scored 64 runs and Abhimanyu Easwaran scored 68 runs. Then the likes of Nitish Reddy and Dhruv Jurel shared an unbeaten partnership of 91 as the match ended up in a draw with India A scoring 241/2 in 41 overs at the end of day 4.