It is not just the senior Indian team that is struggling to chase down fourth-innings totals in red-ball cricket.
The Indian team lost the Pataudi Trophy to England 3-1 by losing the fourth match in Southampton by 60 runs. India failed to hunt down 245 in the fourth Test and 194 in the first in Birmingham to continue the trend of the men in blue failing to achieve fairly gettable targets.
Now it looks the team below them in the Indian set-up has also caught the bug. The India ‘A’ team lost the unofficial Test to Australia ‘A’ in Bengaluru in almost identical fashion as their senior team did in Southampton.
In Bengaluru, India ‘A’ restricted the Aussies to 243 in the first innings with pacer Mohammed Siraj picking up 8-59. Then the hosts managed to take a first-innings lead by scoring 274 thanks to a fighting 91 from Ankit Bawne.
The Aussie batting fared better in the second innings with Travis Head’s 87 taking the score to 292 and giving India a target of 262.
However, India ‘A’ batsmen fell dramatically at the final hurdle as left-arm spinner Jon Holland picked up 6-81 to seal a 98-run victory.
Holland outbowled India international wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the match, picking up nine wickets compared to the Indian’s four. In the Southampton Test, it was England offie Moeen Ali who outbowled his counterpart Ravi Ashwin hands down.
So it would be fair to say fourth-innings chases in any sort of Test is a challenge for Indian batting.
