BENGALURU: Prolific wicket-keeper batsman Rudi Second missed a well deserved century but his purposeful 94 off 139 balls helped South Africa ‘A’ make 246 for eight in 88 overs on the opening day of the four-day unofficial ‘test’ match against India ‘A’ at M Chinnaswamy stadium.
The Cape Province batsman, who is making his bid to enter the Protea senior team, struck 12 boundaries in his stroke-filled innings and kept at bay the India A medium pacers who restricted the visitors to a moderate scoring rate with disciplined bowling. Malusi Siboto (13) and Beuran Hendricks (06) remained unbeaten when stumps were drawn. Hyderabad-based fast medium bowler Mohammad Siraj proved his mettle returning with a haul of 3/56 after opening the attack for India A. Other medium pacers Navdeep Saini (2/47) and Rajneesh Guarbani (2/47) shared the spoils.
Leg spinner Yazuvendra Chahal could not be effective as he could get little turn from the Bengaluru wicket and returned with a dissapointing figures of 19-1-54-1, while other spinner, off spinner Axar Patel went wicket-less after bowling 17 overs.
Second added 59 runs in just 18 overs in the company of Senran Muthusamy (24) for the fifth wicket after South Africa A made a bad start losing two wickets for just 20 runs in the seventh over. Siraj struck hard at the visitors removing opener Pieter Malan (7) and Zubayr Hamza (0). Earlier, the third wicket pair of captain Khaya Zondo (24) and opener Sarel Erwee (47) added 50 runs in 17.1 overs to shore up the visitors with Erwee hitting a patient 47 off 120 balls. (UNI)
