Mixed returns for new Australia Test men as India A win final game

One of them, Travis Head, who had walked in on Monday with his team in a spot at 37/2, combined with Peter Handscomb to take Australia to 107/2 at lunch, after they had fallen behind by 157 runs in the first innings as India A scored 505 in reply to their 346.

Head's wicket in the second session, caught by Ravikumar Samarth off Shahbaz Nadeem, changed the flow, and Marnus Labuschagne, another man who has been included for Australia's tour of the United Arab Emirates to play Pakistan, completed a pair and Australia were in trouble again, at 117/4.

Out walked captain Mitchell Marsh, and scored a vital 36 in a 43-run stand with Handscomb, who then fell for 56 to Kuldeep Yadav. With the score 160/5 and the lead a mere three runs, the lower order needed to contribute for Australia, who went into tea at 185/6.

With time running out as well, the onus was on India to bowl the opponents out and force a result in order to level the series and they did exceptionally well. Krishanappa Gowtham dismissed Marsh, who had shared a 31-run stand with Michael Neser for the seventh wicket, to initiate a lower-order collapse as Australia were bundled for 213, losing their last five wickets for just 53 runs.

Yadav picked up 3/46 while Krishnappa Gowtham returned 3/39. Nadeem and Deepak Chahar got two wickets each.

India had a paltry chase of 55 lined up, but next to no time in hand, and that meant they had to swing their bats at everything. Wickets fell, four of them, but the Indians got the runs they needed in 6.2 overs, with Ankit Bawne scoring 28* in just 18 balls and K Srikar Bharat, the first-innings centurion, hitting 12 in just six balls.