England Lions suffer innings defeat to India A in second unofficial Test

England Lions lost the second unofficial Test against India A in Mysore by an innings and 68 runs.

Resuming the day on 20 without loss, Ben Duckett and Max Holden added 20 more before Holden was lbw to off-spinner Jalaj Saxena for seven. Duckett passed 50 off 60 balls, taking advantage of the attacking fields by launching Saxena for 16 runs in four balls before also being trapped lbw.

Partnerships were hard to come by for the Lions batsmen, with the pitch very receptive to spin and the ball reverse swinging for the pacemen. Captain Sam Billings reached 20 before nicking Navdeep Saini to the wicketkeeper and Lewis Gregory hit a counter-attacking 44 batting with the tail.

Leg-spinner Mayank Markande finished with 5/31, with Saini, Saxena, Varun Aaron and Shahbaz Nadeem sharing the other five wickets between them.

The result means India A won the red-ball series 1-0, following the draw in the first unofficial Test in Wayanad.

Scorecard: https://www.ecb.co.uk/matches/10677

Quotes

Sam Billings

“We’re a pretty young, inexperienced group that played some tough cricket against top-class opposition – as they showed in the one-dayers and the four-day cricket. They were thoroughly deserved winners, having outplayed us over the last month. There are a lot of learnings to take away.

“A lot of the guys won’t have played against top quality spin in these conditions; you don’t get exposed to it frequently at all in England, so that’s a huge learning curve. And certainly [Navdeep] Saini showed how to bowl with the reverse-swinging ball, which doesn’t happen as effectively in England.

“From a bowling point of view it’s completely different as well. Our pace bowlers have had to find ways of getting wickets in these conditions, which is a new experience as well.”

Andy Flower

“Any tour of India is a great experience and everyone has thoroughly enjoyed their five weeks here. I think there are a lot of learnings for each individual, and that goes for the players and some of the staff. Getting used to Indian conditions is a big part of touring here.

“The ‘A’ tours are invaluable to providing that bridge between domestic first-class cricket and international cricket.

“It’s tough to replicate a full Test match or one-day international because we don’t get the crowds to these types of games, but what you are getting is very good peer-against-peer competition. It’s the best of the emerging talent from each country going head-to-head against each other so it’s always interesting to see where the nations are at this level.

“That’s the sort of intense competition we’re looking for – we want to replicate as much as possible international matches and I think the programmes between ‘A’ sides are very important for the development opportunities available.

“Also, it’s important to help players see other countries and the more they’re comfortable in playing in foreign conditions the better off the national side will be in a few years time when they progress.”