Manish Pandey hits unbeaten hundred to seal series win over New Zealand A

Captain Manish Pandey led from the front with a sparkling hundred as India A defeated their counterparts from New Zealand in the second ODI to seal the series.

The star right-hander struck five fours and three sixes in his 109-ball knock as India A overhauled the 300-run target with an over to spare at Mount Maunganui on Sunday.

The New Zealand innings didn’t begin on a good note as they lost opener Hamish Rutherford in the first over itself. But they bounced back strong and hard with a 190-run stand between Worker and Will Young as the duo dominated the Indian bowling and kept New Zealand right on track for a huge total on the board. Young scored a 102 off 106 deliveries but Worker missed out on the three figure mark by just one run.

Thereafter, a quickfire 45 from 28 deliveries for Daryl Mitchell helped New Zealand reach 299/9 at the end of their alloted 50 overs.

The Indian chase did get off to a steady start with openers Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal scoring a 40-run stand, which was ended with the latter’s dismissal.

18 runs later, Gill too followed suit. Shreyas Iyer, who came in at number three played a good counter-attacking innings of 59 runs from 63 balls before Pandey blazed his way to a hundred. Tamil Nadu all-rounder Vijay Shankar also scored 59 off 56 balls as India reached the target with an over to spare.

Brief scores: India A 300 for 5 (Pandey 111*, Shankar 59, Iyer 59, McConchie 2-39 ) beat New Zealand A 299 for 9 (Young 109, Worker 99, Khaleel 2-65) by five wickets.