Haines hundred fuels Lions response after Karun Nair’s 204

Haines hundred fuels Lions response after Karun Nair's 204

Batting continued to be a breeze in Canterbury on the second day of the unofficial Test between India A and England Lions. After the visitors racked up 557 courtesy Karun Nair's imperious 204, the Lions batters, led by a 15th first class ton from Tom Haines and his century stands with Emiliano Gay and Max Holden, got to 237/2, cutting the deficit to 320 runs.

Dhruv Jurel fell six short of his hundred, while Nitish Reddy couldn't make most of his opportunity. Nair got to his double century by pulling a short ball to fine-leg.

Harsh Dubey motored along to 32* by Lunch, and added 39 in less than 10 overs with No.9 Anshul Kamboj. The innings didn't last too much into the second session, and the visitors were bowled out for 557.

It was then India A's turn to find a way to keep the scoring down on a track offering very little to the bowlers. Kamboj gave away just six runs from five overs and knocked over Ben McKinney with a ball that nipped away and uprooted the off-stump.

While Kamboj was superb, his new-ball partner Mukesh Kumar struggled with both his lines and lengths in the first session. Thakur should have had Haines on 11 with just his second ball but Yashasvi Jaiswal put down a tough chance in the slip cordon.

Run scoring continued to be easy through the final session. The introduction of Dubey's left-arm spin brought about a change of tactics as both the left-handers unfurled a range of sweeps to put spinner off his rhythm. The 109-run stand was eventually ended when Gay attempted one more sweep but only managed to edge it on to his boot and to first slip.

At the other end, Haines received another life on 83 when captain Abhimanyu Easwaran put down a catch at point off Harshit Rana. He went on to complete a century in the dying moments of the day's play and finished unbeaten on 103 at Stumps.

Brief scores:

England Lions 237/2 (Tom Haines 103*, Max Holden 64*; Anshul Kamboj 1-24) trail India A 557 (Karun Nair 204, Dhruv Jurel 94, Sarfaraz Khan 92; Josh Hull 3-72, Zaman Akhter 3-73) lead by 320 runs