Tiwary five-for sets up comfortable India A win

Manoj Tiwary's maiden five-wicket haul set up a comfortable win for India A against Australia A two days ahead of the Quadrangular final between the two teams. Ambati Rayudu, Kedar Jadhav and Sanju Samson contributed with the bat as India A chased 229 with 13 deliveries to spare.

Tiwary sent the hosts plummeting from 1 for 126 to 6 for 180, picking up 5 for 34 in ten overs. Marcus Stoinis made a fifty at the top of the order and shared a solid partnership with Phillip Hughes before Akshar Patel provided the breakthrough in the 17th over. The second-wicket partnership between Hughes and Peter Nevill had grown to 48 when Tiwary had the latter stumped for 23. Tiwary claimed the next four wickets, removing captain Cameron White, Hughes, Tom Cooper and Alex Doolan. Akshar ended the innings in the final over when he dismissed Ben Cutting for 22 to claim 3 for 30.

Manan Vohra departed in the fourth over of the chase to Clint McKay after which Robin Uthappa had another failure on the tour, when he was caught off Pat Cummins for 13. Tiwary did not last long as well but Rayudu and Jadhav revived the innings with a century stand for the fourth wicket. Jadhav stroked 52 off 50 and Samson took over after the former fell in the 33rd over. Samson made an unbeaten 49 off 51 while Rayudu, who made 77 off 112, exited with the score on 191. Parvez Rasool came in and hit an unbeaten 20 off 16 even as Samson finished the game with successive fours off Cutting.

India A finished with five wins in six games while Australia A were second with four out of six. The teams will meet in the final to be played on Saturday in Darwin.