India A trail by 29 runs with three wickets in hand in the four-day match against New Zealand A at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Visakhapatnam. Building on his overnight score of 43, Manprit C Juneja anchored the hosts’ innings to take the team to 408 for seven. He was unbeaten on 178 at the end of Day 3; Dhawal Kulkarni (4) the other unbeaten batter when stumps were called.

Earlier, resuming on the overnight total of 94 for two, VA Jagadeesh and Juneja continued build on their partnership and laid a solid foundation for India A. After the home team had lost a couple of early wickets yesterday, the duo stuck it out to stitch together a 197-run partnership for the third wicket, until Doug Bracewell castled the opener nine runs short of a well-earned century.

Jagadeesh was the only batter to fall in the morning session and he was replaced by captain Abhishek Nayar in the middle. It was again Bracewell who halted a flourishing stand and give the visitors an important breakthrough. The pacer disrupted Nayar’s woodwork to send him back for 57. He was soon followed back in the hut by wicketkeeper-batsman CM Gautam, who edged Corey Anderson to the ‘keeper. And 37 runs later, Jalaj Saxena returned too; he nicked Todd Astle to Luke Ronchi behind the stumps for 20.

Meanwhile, Juneja who had brought up his hundred by then, continued to hold up one end with panache. Next to depart was Shrikant Wagh, who was trapped lbw by Astle after adding 19 runs to the total. Juneja was then joined at the crease by Kulkarni and the duo held fort till the end of day’s play.

Brief scores:

Day 1 – New Zealand A 1st innings 300/8 in 89 overs (A Devcich 115, C Anderson 100, D Kulkarni 2/26, J Saxena 2/69)

Day 2 – New Zealand A 1st innings 437 all-out in 121.1 overs overs (D Bracewell 96, I Sodhi 57); India A 1st innings 94/2 in 38 overs (VA Jagadeesh 40*, MC Juneja 43*; M Gillespie 1/11, D Bracewell 1/23)

Day 3 – India A 1st innings 408/7 in 124 overs (MC Juneja 178*, VA Jagadeesh 91, A Nayar 57; D Bracewell 3/75, T Astle 2/96)