Puducherry: Yash Rathod and Shams Mulani batted out 36 overs during a doughty eighth-wicket stand as India A hung on to a thrilling draw against Australia A on the fourth day of the second and final four-day match here on Friday.
India A won the series 1-0 on the back of their 162-run win in the first match here.
India A, resuming from overnight 28 for one in pursuit of a 365-run target, were in all sorts of trouble at 199 for seven in 60.2 overs before reaching 310 for nine at close.
A huge share of credit has to go to Rathod (80, 138b) and Mulani (29, 131b), who survived a little over 36 overs, including 16 overs of second new ball, adding 80 runs to keep India above the water.
With seven overs remaining, pacer Liam Scott (5/37) dismissed Rathod leg before for a crucial breakthrough and two overs later had the number of Mulani.
This left India A’s last-wicket pair of Nachiket Bhute (20 n.o.) and Praful Hinge (0 n.o.) three overs to survive, which they did successfully for an exciting draw.
But India will also have to thank night watchman Tushar Deshpande for making a determined 52 off 119 balls to keep the Aussies at bay earlier in the day.
Deshpande put on 60 runs for the third wicket with skipper Devdutt Padikkal (26) as India A confidently moved to 99/2 at lunch, adding 71 runs for the loss of overnight batter Aayush Pandey (19).
India A’s hopes took a solid blow in the second session as they lost five wickets to be reduced to 205/7 at tea.
Scott had Padikkal edge behind to Josh Philippe, who was standing up to the stumps, while Deshpande checked his drive off fast-medium Liam Hatcher to spoon at catch to mid-off.
But the hosts found a couple of stone-hearted fighters in their tail.
Sam Harper was declared Player of the Match and Shams Mulani adjudged Player of the Series.
Brief scores: Australia A 358 & 173/4 decl drew with India A 167 & 310/9 in 103 overs (Tushar Deshpande 52, Yash Rathod 80, Liam Scott 5-37).
