BENGALURU: Captain Manish Pandey struck a brilliant unbeaten 73 as talented India B thrashed highly rated Australia A by nine wickets in the final of the Quadrangular series One-Day tournament played at M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Wednesday.
Put into bat first Australia A mustered just 225 before being bundled out in 47.5 overs despite opener D Arcy Short striking a purposeful 72 in 77 balls hitting nine boundaries. The openers Short and Usman Khawaja (23) added 51 in just 8.3 overs for the opening wicket but thereafter the Indian B bowlers struck back with leg spinner Shreyas Gopal, most successful bowler in the series claiming 3-50 while medium pacers Siddarth Kaul, Mandeep Saini and Deepak Hooda claimed two wickets each.
In reply Mayank Agarwal was again in good nick hitting 69 in 67 balls hitting nine fours and two six that gave the pedestal for an easy win for India B. After other opener Ishan Kishan retired hurt while on 13, Manish and Shubman Gill (66 not out) added a match winning 130 runs for the undefeated second wicket in just 16.1 overs to make the final a one-sided affair. Manish coming at number four was at his best striking the ball at will and hit eight fours and three sixes and finished the match with a huge six off left arm spinner Short with more than 13 overs still left in the match. (UNI)
