Galli: Left-arm opener Sai Sudarshan’s ground-breaking century helped India A on the opening day of the first unofficial Test against Sri Lanka A at the Galli International Stadium on Thursday.
At the close of play on the first day, the visitors were comfortably posted at 333/4 in 86 overs, with captain Dhruv Jural and Sheikh Rashid unbeaten on 68 and 53 respectively.
Earlier, India A started their innings smoothly as captain Jural won the toss and elected to bat first as their opening pair of Sudarshan and Ayush Pandey put on 82 runs for the first wicket.
The opening stand was mainly dominated by Sudarshan, while Pandey could deliver 25 runs before falling to Sutheera in the 23rd over as well.
Sudhira struck again in his next over, dismissing Devdut Padal for just 12 runs and reducing India A to 96/2.
Following a back-and-forth, Sudarshan then put on another one-sided partnership – joining Ruduraj Gaekwad for 95 runs for the third wicket, who could contribute 22 runs off 53 balls.
The left-handed opener shared a 36-run fourth-wicket partnership with captain Jurel before eventually succumbing to Samika Gunasekara in the second session and withdrew after top-scoring with 132 off 175 balls with 19 boundaries.
His dismissal paved the way for Rashid to step out and bat at No.6, and the 21-year-old kept the momentum going in India A’s favor by batting judiciously alongside skipper Jurel.
Rashid and Jurrell denied Sri Lanka another breakthrough as they ended a successful opening day of the tour with an unbeaten 116-run partnership during which they both got their respective half-centuries.
Sutheera was the standout bowler for Sri Lanka A on the opening day, taking 2 wickets for 98 runs in his 29 overs, while Gunasekara and Samindu Fernando claimed one wicket each.