| Sanju Da… series for India A team

Chennai: India A team won the unofficial ODI cricket series against New Zealand A team. India, led by Malayali player Sanju Samson, won the series by winning the second ODI in a row.

Sanju welcomed by winning the first series as the captain. India won by four wickets in the second ODI. Batting first, New Zealand A scored 219 runs. The India A team batted in reply and took the winning run with 96 balls to spare. Opener Prithvi Shah scored 77 runs in 48 balls including three sixes and 11 fours and Sanju Samson scored 37 runs in 35 balls including two sixes and four fours.

Rishi Dhawan (22 off 43 balls) and Shardul Thakur (25 including a six and three fours off 24 balls) scored the winning runs. Joy Carter (72 off 80 balls with three sixes and a four) and Rachin Ravindra (61 off 65 balls) scored half-centuries for New Zealand. Kuldeep Yadav, who took four wickets including a hat-trick, destroyed New Zealand. The hat-trick was achieved in the 47th over. Kuldeep completed his hat-trick by dismissing Logan van Beek (four), Joe Walker (four) and Jacob Duffy (0). Sean Solia (28) was also dismissed by Kuldeep.

Rahul Chahar and Rishi Dhawan took two wickets each while Umran Malik and Raj Bawa took one wicket each.

Opener Prithvi Shah put up a good performance for India, who batted in reply with a target of 220 runs. Fellow opener Rituraj Gaekwad (30 off 34 balls with one six and four fours) also did well.

Sanju came fourth. Logan van Beek took three wickets and Jacob Duffy two wickets for New Zealand.