Bad light forces early stumps after Haines, Gay fifties

It was a day dominated by the hosts as England Lions wrapped up the India A tail and then reached 192 or 3 at stumps. Emilio Gay top scored with 71 while Tom Haines continued his good form with another fifty. Jordan Cox remained unbeaten on 31. Bad light forced an early end to the day's play, with Lions having cut down the deficit to 156 runs.

For India A, the bowlers were good in patches, but failed to be consistent. Anshul Kamboj picked up 1 for 38, while Tushar Deshpande and Tanush Kotian also managed a wicket each.

The day started with Josh Tongue removing the overnight batters Kotian and Kamboj early. Khaleel Ahmed and Deshpande added 18 off 23 for the tenth wicket to take India A to 348.

In reply, Haines, the centurion from the first unofficial Test, looked the most compact in conditions where the ball swung around for both Khaleel and Kamboj.

It was the around-the-wicket angle that worked for Kamboj, who got a lot more false shots drawn and beat the bat a number of times; at one point four in a row against Haines. He had a regulation catch put down at backward point but kept at it and two balls later had Ben McKinney caught behind. Kamboj bowled a long spell of six overs and easily looked the best bowler for the visitors.

Shardul Thakur bowled an eventful first over after lunch, which had two no-balls and a dropped chance. Haines pushed back a fuller-length delivery towards Thakur, who failed to latch onto a relatively tough chance. Thakur also bowled four no-balls in his first five overs.

Gay found a flourishing four against Khaleel before Haines struck another solid one off Thakur. Gay was struck on the side of his head by a sharp bumper from Khaleel and had a concussion check.

Haines reached fifty with a streaky four past the slips, but it was an untroubled knock otherwise. Both batters were brisk as Lions added 65 runs in 11 overs after the lunch break.

Deshpande had Haines caught behind before tea with a fuller-length ball outside off stump that moved ever so late and took the outside edge. Gay largely looked fluent, and only seemed a bit troubled with the around the wicket angle from Kamboj and Thakur. He brought up his 16th first-class fifty off 88 balls with an on drive. Cox kept him company as Lions reached 146 for 2 at tea.

Kotian broke the 69-run stand between Gay and Cox by trapping the former in front of the stumps. Captain James Rew faced five deliveries before players went off for bad light. They did not return with stumps being called after a 13-over final session.