Saurabh Kumar spins India A to innings win over Bangladesh A
Faced with a big deficit, the hosts looked well-placed to save the game at 110 for 3, but lost their next seven wickets for just 77 runs
ESPNcricinfo staff
09-Dec-2022
Saurabh Kumar ran through the Bangladesh A batting on the fourth day • BCB
Bangladesh A 252 and 187 (Shadman 93, Saurabh 6-74, Umesh 2-34, Saini 2-54) lost to India A 562 for 9 dec (Abhimanyu 157, Jayant 83, Bharat 77, Saurabh 55, Pujara 52, Saini 50*, Musfik 3-129, Murad 3-145, Sumon 2-119) by an innings and 123 runs
Saurabh Kumar spun Bangladesh A out to give India A an innings-and-123-run win in the second and final four-day match in Sylhet. The Indians completed the series win - the first game was drawn - on the last afternoon after bowling Bangladesh A out for 187, taking eight wickets in a little over one session to complete the job.
India A left nothing to chance as left-arm spinner Saurabh, who had removed Mahmudul Hasan Joy on the third evening, struck the first two blows on the final day. Mominul Haque was caught behind for six, and Saurabh then took out Shahadat Hossain, who made 29 in a 54-run fourth-wicket stand with Shadman Islam.
Saurabh ran through the lower-middle order then to complete his second five-wicket haul of the series. He finished the two match series with 15 wickets at 14.46.
Umesh Yadav and Navdeep Saini, the Indian quicks, took two wickets each.
That Bangladesh A got as far as they did was down to Shadman, who waged a lone battle. He made an unbeaten 93, carrying his bat through the innings, with 18 fours. He batted for nine minutes short of six hours. The only support he got was from Shahadat, and then from Jaker Ali, who scored 22 in a fifth-wicket partnership of 35 runs. Shahadat and Jaker had hit half-centuries in the first innings.
It hasn't been a productive time for the Bangladesh A batters, especially those in the Test reckoning - Mominul and Mahmudul made 42 and 44 runs in the four innings, respectively.
The brightest spot was Zakir Hasan, who finished with 231 runs in the series, including a 173 in the second innings of the first game, which earned him a spot in the Test side for the first time.