England Lions’ draw with India A in the first unofficial Test in Wayanad keeps the series alive heading into the second four-day match in Mysore, starting on Wednesday.
The Lions batted out the final day on Sunday to seal the draw, having been given a batting masterclass from the home side as they racked up a 200-run first innings lead on a pitch that offered little to the bowlers.
The two previous first-class matches at the Krishnagiri Stadium had concluded within two days, meaning the 880 combined runs scored in the first innings was somewhat unexpected.
Lions head coach Andy Flower was full of praise as to how the England players stuck to their task, emphasising the learning experience they will have taken from the game.
“While bowling 135 overs is tough for the guys, it’s great to see how they dealt with the stress and challenge of the situations they faced,” he said.
“This is exactly why we bring these young players to unfamiliar environments; the best international cricketers are the ones who deal well with these sorts of challenges and this is where we find out who has what it takes to compete at the highest level.
“Our boys applied themselves very well throughout the day and they will all have learned a lot; the bowlers about plugging away on difficult wickets and our batsmen will hopefully be inspired by the excellent innings-building shown by the Indians.”
While the match will be remembered for Priyank Panchal’s superb double century and KS Bharat’s powerful 142, England’s batsmen also enjoyed success in Wayanad.
Four players passed 50, including two half-centuries for Sam Hain – the Warwickshire man spent 345 balls at the crease across his two patient innings.
Ben Duckett led the charge on day one with a fluent knock of 80, while young Surrey duo Will Jacks and Ollie Pope passed 50 in the first and second innings respectively.
And Flower is now challenging his batsmen to follow in the Indian A batsmen’s footsteps and convert their chances into big hundreds in the second ‘Test’.
“It was a good game of cricket and there were some really good performances,” Flower said. “The outstanding performances were the double hundred and hundred; the double hundred from Panchal was a classy knock and then the more attacking innings from Bharat was outstanding. It was a good testing for our guys.
“There were some nice performances from our team as well – not as large, as long or as strong as some of the Indian performances, but still good. There were two good knocks from Hain, who batted really calmly and showed good method. It was good that Pope got in and what we’d really like to see is our guys getting in and scoring hundreds.
“For our guys to make the transition to Test cricket, they need to be able to score big in these games so Mysore will be another good challenge for us.”