India ‘A’ cantered to an eight-wicket win with two balls to spare in the warm-up T20 match against South Africa at the Palam ground in New Delhi. Chasing 190, the 119-run opening stand between Manan Vohra (56 off 42) and Mayank Agarwal (87 off 49) set up the match for the home team.
Earlier, after electing to bat, SA captain Faf du Plessis scored 42 off 27 while JP Duminy made 68* off 32 to lift SA to 189. Their opener, Quinton de Kock was the first to be sent back in the first over, run out by Mandeep Singh for two. AB de Villiers and SA’s T20 skipper then joined forces to take the team forward. With the visiting team on 90 the opener was sent back by Kuldeep Yadav off the last ball of the tenth over.
While du Plessis retired hurt, Duminy led the charge against India ‘A’. David Miller was bowled by Hardik Pandya for 10 but Farhaan Behardein joined the middle-order bat in setting India a competitive target.
The India ‘A’ openers then got the team off to a good start and set the chase on course until Duminy ended the opening partnership. Vohra was the first to return to the dressing room with the balance tipped in the favour of the hosts. Agarwal then carried on the chase with Sanju Samson. The pair added 52 runs for the second wicket until the opener was sent back by Marchant de Lange.
With 19 runs needed off 16 balls captain, Mandeep joined Samson in closing in on the target. The pair pilfered runs of Kyle Abbot in the penultimate over to bring India ‘A’ within sniffing distance of victory. With three runs needed off the last over, the duo coasted to the finish line.
Brief scores: South Africa 189/3 in 20 overs (JP Duminy 68*, Faf du Plessis 42*, H Pandya 1/16) lost to India ‘A’ 193/2 in 19.4 overs (M Agarwal 87, M Vohra 56, S Samson 31*, JP Duminy 1/22) by 8 wickets
