Australia A in Complete Control

Australia A finished day two in a commanding position, after declaring their first innings closed at 461-4 they have India 221-7 still 240 runs behind.

If Phil Jaques had a sleepless night, after finishing day one on 199*, he showed little signs of sleep deprivation effortlessly reaching the 200 mark on the resumption of play this morning.

The Australians soon had more to celebrate when the other overnight not out batsman Travis Birt brought up a much deserved tonne.

The two combined to put on 279 for the third wicket, before Birt was finally dismissed for 130(451-3). Even so the wicket was due to a run out and not the penetrating bowling of the India A attack.

Just four runs later Jaques fell LBW to the Indian A captain Venugopal Rao, for a classy 240. Surprisingly Shaun Marsh 6* and Shane Watson 1* showed no intent to increase the run rate, before the declaration at lunch.

India A in contrast found conditions much more troubling losing opener Gautam Gamhir to the bowling of Mitchell Johnson for just 10 (15-1).

Watson then chimed in with the wickets of Tejinder Singh (17) and Robin Utahappa caught and bowled for an entertaining 50 from just 57 balls. This left India A 85-3.

Watson kept in the action with a good catch to dismiss the Indian captain (19) from the bowling of Johnson. This left India A in the precarious position of 115-4.

A much needed partnership of 68 between Subramaniam Badrinath (59) and Rohit Sharma (41) helped India A to a slight recovery. The batsman played in very contrasting styles; with the former intent mostly on defence and the latter on attack.

When both were dismissed in quick succession India A looked to be in serious trouble, this was compounded further when Shaun Tait claimed a wicket in the last over of the day. Australia A look ‘good things’ at stumps on day two of this four day match.

Australia A 461-4 dec
Phil Jaques 240, Travis Birt 130
Shib Paul 1-59, Venugopal Rao 1-34

India A 221-7
Subramaniam Badrinath 59, Robin Utahappa 50
Shane Watson 3-39, Mitchell Johnson 2-39