De Kock century cements SA A dominance

India A 122 for 3 (Iyer 49, Rayudu 11*) trail South Africa A 542 (De Kock 113, Ramela 112, Axar 4-115) by 420 runs
Scorecard

A third century in as many innings from Quinton de Kock extended South Africa A's domination of the first unofficial Test against India A in Wayanad. He made 113 runs off 102 balls, ransacked 107 runs at the rate of 5.7 per over with Dane Vilas for the seventh wicket and took the total to 542.

Unlike in the one-day tri-series earlier this month when he opened the batting, de Kock manned the No. 7 position and had the comfort of walking out at 307 for 5. His innings included 13 fours and three sixes and continues to make a strong case for himself when the senior team tour India in October. His partner during that rollicking seventh-wicket stand, Vilas cruised to 75 off 74 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes and has not fallen that far behind in the contest for the wicketkeeper's position with the Test side.

Axar Patel as India A's only source of control, and threat, bowling 39 overs for only 115 runs and picking up four wickets. He was the only man, on condition of bowling at least 11 overs, to concede less than three runs an over. The other specialist spinner, Jayant Yadav, got a bigger workload - 42 overs, but leaked 177 runs for his two wickets. There was very little on offer for the seamers, with Abhimanyu Mithun and Ishawar Pandey combining to bowl 44 overs, only four of which were maidens, for 174 runs and two wickets.

That trend continued when India A came out to bat. It was offspinner Dane Piedt who removed the openers. Shreyas Iyer appeared comfortable at No. 3, so much that he relied on boundaries to secure 40 of his 49 runs. The problem, though, was he was bowled with two overs left to stumps and India A went back to the pavilion at 122 for 3 after 34.5 overs. A healthy run-rate, of course, but they are 420 runs behind.