India A fold for 172 at Mumbai

Sri Lanka A 134 for 4 (Nawaz 46*, Polonowita 38*) trail India A 172 (Badani 47, Herath 4-34) by 38 runs
Scorecard

Sri Lanka A took the upper hand on the first day's play at Mumbai as they bowled out India A for 172, and then erased a large part of that score by stumps. Rangana Herath, who took 4 for 34, polished off the lower order with a fine spell of left-arm spin and was instrumental in his side's dominance of the opening day.

Three of the first four batsmen for India A made starts, but none of them could go on. Hemang Badani, coming in at No. 4, top-scored with 47 fluent runs, made off only 65 balls with eight fours. Shiv Sunder Das and Mohammad Kaif made scores in the thirties, but Sri Lanka's opening bowlers, Lasith Malinga and Tharanga Lakshitha, took two wickets apiece and pegged the Indians back early.

India never really recovered from those setbacks. Badani fell with the score on 148, and a middle order of Rohan Gavaskar, Ambati Rayudu and Ajay Ratra mustered up only 28 runs between them. Thereafter Herath worked his magic on the tailenders, as the last four all went for nought.

Sri Lanka began their innings even more disastrously, reeling at 69 for 4 thanks to an early introduction of Murali Kartik, who took 3 for 48. But Naveed Nawaz (46*) and Anushka Polonowita (38*) stabilised the innings with an unbeaten stand of 65 for the fifth wicket.