Sylhet, Dec 7: Skipper Abhimanyu Easwaran continued his fine form with a second successive hundred as India A reached 324 for 5 at stumps on day two of the second unofficial ‘Test’ against Bangladesh A here.
Veteran Cheteshwar Pujara (52 off 124 balls) also warmed up nicely for the upcoming Test series with a compact fifty scored in just over three hours with India enjoying a lead of 72 runs at stumps.
The 27-year-old India A captain remained undefeated on 144, batting throughout the day en route his 18th first-class hundred. He hit 13 fours and two sixes during his 231-ball knock.
He added 119 for the second wicket with Pujara, who had seven boundaries in his innings while another 151 runs were scored for the fifth wicket with keeper-batter Kona Bharat (77, 132 balls). Bharat struck 10 boundaries in his innings.
The ones to miss out on the day were young opener Yashasvi Jaiswal (12), Yash Dhull (17) and Sarfaraz Khan (0).
Sarfaraz, a prolific scorer for Mumbai in Ranji Trophy, is yet to make a mark at the India A team level. On the day, he was out nicking medium pacer Sumon Khan behind the stumps.
Easwarn played some flowing drives while Pujara was more intent on playing himself in. It was unfortunate that just after completion of his fifty, he was out to part-time left-arm spin of regular Bangaldesh Test captain Mominul Haque as wicketkeeper Zakir Hasan took the catch.
The most entertaining stand of the day was between Easwaran and Bharat as they scored at an average of more than four runs per over. They were together for 35.5 overs. (PTI)
Brief Scores: Bangladesh A 1st Innings 252. India A 1st Innings 324/5 (Easwaran 144 batting, Pujara 52, Kona Bharat 77, Sumon Khan 2/67, Musfik Hasan 2/68).
