Pacers ensure healthy first-innings lead for India A

Pacers led the way to bowl out South Africa A for 221 despite skipper Marques Ackerman's counterattacking 134. To the 34-run lead, the hosts added 78 more, for the loss of three wickets, to finish 112 ahead when the stumps were drawn on Day 2 of the second unofficial Test.

Two of the top-four, including Temba Bavuma, bagged ducks before Ackerman stitched a 64-run stand with opener Jordan Hermann to help recover from 12/3 in which Akash Deep struck twice early. Another mini collapse followed after the half-century partnership was broken, with the visitors slipping to a concerning 121/7.

The captain then took the lead in the 86-run partnership, off 62 deliveries, with Prenelan Subrayen to take his side past the 200 mark. Ackerman scored 66 of those runs, bringing up a brisk century. Once again, what followed was the collapse of the tail, keeping South Africa to just 221 with their captain having scored more than half the team's runs.

Okhule Cele then struck on his first ball of the second innings to lend India A an early blow with the wicket of Abhimanyu Easwaran. Sai Sudharsan made 23 in the 40-run stand with KL Rahul before being trapped LBW.

Rahul continued in the company of Devdutt Padikkal who made 24 off 42, but lost his wicket just before stumps to leave India at 78/3 in the second innings.

Brief scores:India A 255 & 78/3 (KL Rahul 26*; Okhule Cele 2-28) lead South Africa A 221 (Marques Ackerman 134; PRasidh Krishna 3-35, Akash Deep 2-28, Mohd. Siraj 2-61) by 112 runs