West Indies 'A' batting crumbles

GRACE ROAD, England (CMC):Teenaged left-arm seamer Jaidev Unadkat snatched a seven-wicket haul to wreck West Indies A's batting before Ajinkya Rahane and Abhinav Mukund scored half-centuries to put India A in charge of the first four-day 'Test' yesterday.

Playing on the second day after rain forced the opening day on Thursday to be abandoned, Unadkat picked up seven for 41 on his first-class debut to send the Caribbean side tumbling for a disappointing 144.

In reply, Rahane carved out an unbeaten 66, while opener Mukund hammered out a patient 54, as India A cruised to 183 for two, already a lead of 39 runs.

SCOREBOARD

D Smith c Pandey b Unadkat 5K Brathwaite c Tiwary b Unadkat 13O Phillips lbw b Unadkat 6A Fletcher c Mukund b Kulkarni 20K Edwards lbw b Unadkat 1+C Walton b Unadkat 0D Bernard lbw b Iqbal Abdulla 22I Khan c Tiwary b Unadkat 28A Russell c Pujara b Kulkarni 19L Baker b Unadkat 3G Tonge not out 9Extras: (b5, lb11, w1, nb1) 18TOTAL: (all out, 43.3 overs) 144

Fall of wickets: 1-5 (Smith), 2-17 (Phillips), 3-26 (Brathwaite), 4-63 (Edwards), 5-63 (Fletcher), 6-63 (Walton), 7-113 (Khan), 8-113 (Bernard), 9-116 (Baker), 10-144 (Russell).

Bowling: Kulkarni 13.3-6-41-2, Unadkat 18-6-41-7, Ganapathy 7-2 24 0, Iqbal Abdulla 5-1-22-1

INDIA A 1st innings

A Mukund lbw b Khan 54S Dhawan c Smith b Tonge 17A Rahane not out 66C Pujara not out 34Extras: (lb7, w4, nb1) 12TOTAL: (2 wkts, 49 overs) 183

To bat: M Pandey, C Ganapathy, +W Saha, Iqbal Abdulla, D Kulkarni, M Tiwary, J Unadkat.

Fall of wickets: 1-48 (Dhawan), 2-130 (Mukund)

Bowling: Tonge 14-1-49-1, Baker 10-1-38-0, Russell 9-1-32-0, Bernard 8-1-23-0, Khan 7-0-29-1, Smith 1-0-5-0.

Position: India lead by 39 runs with eight wickets in tact.

Toss: India A.

Umpires: R Bailey, J Lloyds