After clinching the ODI series with an unassailable 2-0 lead, a dominant India ‘A’ will now look to complete the whitewash when they lock horns against New Zealand ‘A’ in the final one-dayer here on Thursday.
Led by Unmukt Chand, India ‘A’ have dominated the three-match unofficial one-day series so far.Their six-wicket victory on Tuesday sealed the series for the hosts and they may look to test their bench strength, giving a chance to spinner Jalaj Saxena and batsman Sanju Samson.
Chand has, so far, led his team by example as he scored 94 and 59 in the first two matches while his opening partner Robin Uthappa also scored a century in the lung-opener.
The U-19 World Cup winning captain scripted a good comeback after his twin failures in the Test series to top the list of highest run-scorer in the limited-overs rubber so far and he would look for another good show from his bat to help his team inflict a whitewash on the tourists.
Though the Indian middle-order batsmen didn’t have much to do in the first match, they came good in the second game with the likes of Mandeep Singh, Kedar Jadhav and Ashok Maneria rising to the occasion.
While Mandeep scored a 59, adding 89 runs off 103 for the third wicket with skipper Chand, Maharashtra’s Jadhav and Rajasthan left-hander Maneria, too delivered, making unbeaten 30 and 37 respectively.
Maneria, in fact, turned out to be the most valuable player when he returned with a five-wicket haul to strangle the Kiwis.