It was a day of left-handers as Devdutt Padikkal (199), Sai Sudharsan (91), Yash Rathod (66) and Washington Sundar (51 not out) piled on the runs for India A against New Zealand A on a very windy day at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln.
The visitors finished Day Three on 488/8 in 119 overs, a lead of 284 runs.
There were a couple of disappointments though: Padikkal missing out on a double hundred by a run, and Sudharsan falling in his 90s. Padikkal was visibly unhappy at being given out caught behind on 199 off Zak Gibson. He had tried flicking a leg-side delivery and the umpire ruled it out.
He was initially shocked, and stood there frozen for a while before trudging off. He even turned around to look at the umpire as he spread his arms wide to suggest that there was a huge gap between bat and ball. The gap wasn’t as huge in reality, though replays didn’t confirm any contact of leather on wood either.
Sudharsan fell for 91, to the short-ball tactic, after unfurling a few crunchy pulls in his innings. But this time around, with a man placed at a slightly deep backward square-leg, he didn’t go for the hard pull but tried to help it along, only ending up top-edging to that fielder, Dean Foxcroft, off Kristian Clarke.
Dhruv Jurel, whose position in the Test team should come into doubt, again fell cheaply, for 2. He too went down to the short ball, trying to pull from outside off stump, miscuing it to a fielder behind square, positioned exactly for that shot.
Rathod made 66 off 72 balls, with eight fours. He was compact, playing quite a few crisp on-the-up punches through the offside against the seamers. But it was a day to remember for Padikkal.
He had been dropped on 19 the previous day, when a ball from round the stumps kicked up and cut in to cramp him for room, and the resultant stab flew to slip, where it was grassed. There were no such heart-in-the-mouth moments on Monday, as he flowed along rather neatly. He made 199 off 248 balls, with 24 fours and three sixes.
There were some fluid cover drives, back-foot square punches and flicks. He often went back to cut left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox, and also charged down the track a couple of times. One such move down the pitch, on 95, brought him his hundred.
The pitch had eased up, there wasn’t any alarming seam movement on offer and Padikkal was in his element. He had his back foot on the middle-stump line and didn’t commit much either way, choosing to react to the length of the deliveries.
The innings comes ahead of the Test series, in which he is slated to bat at No. 3. Last month, after his second hundred in Sri Lanka, he had said: “Obviously, there have been great players who have played at number three for India over the years, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot more scrutiny on me and a lot more comparisons made.”
The series in New Zealand is expected to test him if the ball moves around in conditions amiable for seam bowling, and his performances will be watched closely.
Sudharsan, whose injury made way for Padikkal’s entry into the Test team, was batting along without much fuss before faulty shot- selection undid his good work. At stumps, Sundar was unbeaten on 51 off 75 balls, and Auqib Nabi’s 38, with two sixes, added to the lead.
Brief scores: India A 113 & 488/8 (Padikkal 199, Sudharsan 91, Yash Rathod 66, Washington 51 batting) lead New Zealand A 317 by 284 runs