Manish Pandey shines as India A take unassailable 3-0 lead against South Africa A
Current captain of the India A team, Manish Pandey paved the way for India A to win the five-match One Day series against South Africa A by scoring a match-winning 59-ball 81. The hosts reached the target of 208 with four wickets and 13 balls remaining and hence taking an impregnable lead of 3-0.
Manish Pandey rose to the occasion where a quickfire innings was required to push India A to a victory, which was finally achieved with an ample no. of deliveries left and wickets in hand. The third match of the five-match One Day series in Thiruvananthapuram was reduced to 30 overs a side and the visitors batting first put up a target of 208.
In response to that, the hosts had a shaky start with 26 for 3 at one point but the scenario changed when skipper Manish Pandey joined Ishan Kishan in the middle for the 4th-wicket partnership. Together they added 70 in the next 49 balls before the 21-year-old wicketkeeper was dismissed on 40.
The fifth wicket fell soon after as Nitish Rana was dismissed on 13 off 13, and the responsibility was back on Pandey, who had already scored fifty by then. Though Pandey fell to the left-arm spin of Bjorn Fortuin in the 25th over, India A only required another 34 runs from 32 deliveries.
The visitors, on the other hand, only had a series of small contributions from their batsmen but they, however, put up a defendable target on board. At the end, it were the hosts who emerged victorious at the end of the game. The fourth one-day fixture will be played on September 4 at the same venue in Thiruvananthapuram.
