Galli: After half-centuries from Saransh Jain and captain Dhruv Jural and a mammoth century from left-arm opener Sai Sudarshan, India A took the lead against Sri Lanka A on the final day of the second unofficial Test at the Galli International Stadium on Saturday.
At the end of play on the third day, the visitors were 541/8 leading by 175 runs, with Jain and lower-order batsman Yash Thakur unbeaten on 68 and 2 respectively.
Earlier, with Sri Lanka A all out for 366, India A resumed their first innings unbeaten at 247/1 with Sudarshan and Devdat Pathikal scoring 104 and 94 respectively.
However, the duo could only add one run for the second wicket to their overnight century-plus partnership as Patikal fell on the third delivery of the day and fell just short of a well-deserved century as he scored 94 off 152 balls.
Sudarsan was then joined by skipper Jurel in the middle and the duo put on 120 runs for the third wicket to re-establish India A’s dominance, with the opener eventually caught lbw to Dillum Sudira.
The left-handed opener top scored with 168 off 267 balls with 22 boundaries in India A’s first innings.
Jural briefly shared a 32-run stand for the fourth wicket with Sheikh Rashid, who also fell to Sutheera. He scored 53 runs off 88 balls with the help of 6 fours.
His dismissal paved the way for Jain to come out to bat at number 7 and share handy partnerships with all-rounders Rashid (45) and Auqib Nabi (30) to take India A’s total past 500.
With India A losing two more wickets in the last minute of the final day, Jain held one end firmly and returned unbeaten on 68 off 137 balls with 2 fours and a six.
Keshara Nuvantha took 4 wickets, Dhilum Sudira took 3 wickets and Sahan Arachike took one wicket on behalf of Sri Lanka A team.