BENGALURU: Indian pacers Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, and spinner Kuldeep Yadav, made good use of the conditions at the BCCI Centre of Excellence here on Friday. On Day 2 of India ‘A’ red-ball game against South Africa ‘A’, the pacers especially got valuable game time before the upcoming two-match Test series against South Africa. Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!On a day when 14 wickets fell, visiting skipper Marques Ackerman (134; 118b; 17×4; 5×6) stood out with an attacking century. His performance challenged the bowlers, especially Siraj and Kuldeep.India ‘A’, who scored 255 in their first essay, bowled out South Africa ‘A’ for 221 in 47.3 overs for a slender 34-run advantage. After some early jitters, India were 78/3 in 24 overs when stumps were drawn, with a 112-run lead. Rahul was batting on 26, but his opening partner, Abhimanyu Eashwaran, returned a duck, and like the first innings, he was adjudged leg-before on the third delivery he faced. Sai Sudarshan again failed to convert, was beaten, and trapped in the front.
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In the morning, the Indian pacers couldn’t have asked for better conditions. When the sun was barely out, a couple of floodlights were switched on at the start of the day. Akash Deep and Siraj kept their line and length tight. It didn’t take long for opener Lesego Senokwane to bait Akash Deep’s outswingers, which crashed into the off-stump.Zubayr Hamza got lucky once when a delivery from Siraj, who induced edges on both sides, escaped to the fence, but the next, which came in off the seam, caught him rooted to the crease.South Africa’s Test team skipper Temba Bavuma (0), who is coming off an injury layoff, beat a hasty retreat, a faint edge down the leg, carrying to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.With his team reeling at 12/3, Ackerman needed to deliver a captain’s knock, which he did finely.The 29-year-old took time to get an eye in and struggled against Kuldeep, but he set the tone for his innings with a reverse sweep to the boundary off the spinner.Ackerman and Jordon steadied the innings with their 64-run partnership for the fourth wicket, before Prasaidh Krishna (3/35) dealt a double blow.Even as he lost partners regularly, Ackerman kept the scoreboard moving, finding the gaps and boundaries in almost every other over.On 69, with two copybook cover drives, Ackerman began his 24-run attack on Siraj. Off the next, Prasidh fumbled on the boundary line to gift a four, and what followed were two powerful maximums, which took him into his 90s.He frustrated the Indian bowlers and put together a quickfire 62-ball 86 runs eighth wicket partnership with Prenelan Subrayen (20) before the latter was run out.Harsh Dubey ended Ackerman’s innings with his cheeky reverse sweep, going straight to Pant.Brief scores: India ‘A’ 255 & 78/3 (KL Rahul 26*, Okuhle Cele 2-28) in 24 overs vs South Africa ‘A’ 221 all out in 47.3 overs (Jordan Hermann 26, Marques Ackerman 134; Mohammad Siraj 2-61, Akash Deep 2-28, Prasidh Krishna 3-35)
