Karun Nair hits double century, Nitish Reddy disappoints on Day 2

After India A dominated the first day’s play in Canterbury, the England Lions bounced back on the second day. The score read 409/3 from 90 overs before a ball was delivered. The visitors were well on top. But the momentum quickly changed. The remaining 7 wickets fell in just 35.1 overs for India A.

Double hundred for Karun Nair

Karun Nair managed to score a double hundred after being unbeaten on 186 overnight. But fell just after, at 204, to Zaman Akhter. Dhruv Jurel needed just 18 runs to score his second first-class hundred, but he fell 6 runs short. It wasn’t too dissimilar to what happened with Sarfaraz Khan, a day prior.

Nitish Kumar Reddy looked out of sorts and his struggles were ended by Eddie Jack. His 7 runs came off 22 balls. Shardul Thakur oozed confidence in his brisk 27-run knock but couldn’t kick on. Harsh Dubey, Anshul Kamboj, and Harshit Rana played good cameos of 32, 23, and 16 to take the score to 557.

Anshul Kamboj, India’s best bowler

To think India A would add just 148 runs for the last 7 wickets wasn’t expected. But some average batting and spirit bowling from England Lions brought the hosts back into the game. But the game was still in India A’s control. And Anshul Kamboj got an early breakthrough as well. He might have had another wicket had Jurel not dropped a sitter.

But post that early spell from Kamboj, nothing went India A’s way the rest of the day. Harsh Dubey broke a 109-run stand between Emilio Gay and Tom Haines but then Max Holden joined Haines to frustrate India A. Shardul, Kamboj and Dubey didn’t leak many runs but Harshit and Mukesh Kumar lacked control.

Nitish Reddy’s struggles

Abhimanyu Easwaran finally gave the ball to Nitish Reddy in the 42nd over. It seemed baffling. But then when he bowled, it made sense. His first ball was a no-ball. In his first over he was hit for a six as well, the first and only one of the day. He bowled another no-ball in the next over. And all in all, leaked 27 runs in 3 overs.

By the end of the day, Haines scored his 15th first-class hundred from 138 balls. And the England Lions finished day 2 at 237/2 in 52 overs, still trailing by 320 runs.