Bengaluru : Punjab youngster Gurkeerat Singh’s all-round brilliance enabled India A to comfortably crush Bangladesh A by 96 runs in the first ODI of the three-match series on Wednesday.
Gurkeerat contributed a quick-fire 58-ball 65 to ensure a commanding total of 322 for seven for the hosts, and then effectively bowled his off-breaks to return figures of 5/29 in 7.3 overs as the visitors were bowled out for 226 in 42.3 overs.
Gurkeerat’s five-for, In fact, was his best figures in List A as the last five Bangladesh wickets fell for just 19 runs to him.
Much was expected of India’s limited overs specialist Suresh Raina, who was coming into competitive match after a three-month rest, but he looked completely rusty during his 28-ball 16. It was Gurkeerat along with young Sanju Samson (73) and Rishi Dhawan (56), who steadied the innings as India were reduced to 125 for five at the halfway stage after opener Mayank Agarwal (56)’s steady innings.
This was the 25-year-old Gurkeerat’s second successive Man-of-the-Match performance after his unbeaten 87 won India A the tri-series final against Australia A. His 58-ball innings had nine boundaries as he added 102 runs in 14.5 overs with Samson and another 78 in eight overs with Dhawan whose 56 came off 34 balls with eight fours and
two sixes.
Put into bat by rival skipper Mominul Haque, opener Agarwal and Unmukt Chand (16) took the team’s total to 44 with India A skipper hitting four boundaries before Taskin Ahmed’s extra pace induced him to edge one to Litton Das behind the stumps.
Extras: lb7, w21……………………..28
Total: For 7 wkts in 50 ovrs……..322
FoW: 1-44, 2-51, 3-76, 4-76, 5-125, 6-227, 7-305
Bowling: Taskin 5-0-46-1, Islam 10-1-60-2, Rubel 10-1-56-0, Sarkar 3-0-23-0, Nasir 9-0-51-2, Sunny 10-0-57-1, Sabbir 1-0-11-0, Mominul 2-0-11-0
Extras: lb4, w15, nb3………………22
Total: All-out in 42.3 overs……..226
FoW: 1-25, 2-25, 3-34, 4-72, 5-87, 6-207, 7-219, 8-223, 9-226
Bowling: Kulkarni 7-0-46-0, Aravind 8-1-29-3, Dhawan 8-1-51-2, Karn 10-0-53-0, Gurkeerat 7.3-0-29-5, Raina 2-0-14-0.
