The Indian cricket team has made a dismal start to their red ball campaign on the New Zealand tour. Playing the first unofficial Test match at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln, the Indian batting lineup collapsed completely on the very first day, exposing the technical vulnerabilities and lack of preparation of the Indian batters ahead of the upcoming Test series against New Zealand, while capitalizing fully on the local pitch conditions, New Zealand A bowlers dismantled the visiting team, restricting them to a paltry total of 113 runs in the first innings. Earlier in the match, New Zealand A had won the toss and elected to bowl first, a decision that paid rich dividends as their bowling attack wreaked havoc.
Right from the onset, trouble mounted for the Indian batters as India A experienced a nightmare start after being put in to bat. Opening the innings, star batsman KL Rahul failed to open his account, getting dismissed without scoring after facing eight balls. Coming in to bat at number four, Sai Sudharsan also fell for a duck, failing to score any runs after playing thirteen deliveries. On top of that, team captain and wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel struggled immensely, managing to score just a single run.
The collapse of the Indian innings didn't stop there, as other lower and middle-order batsmen failed to negotiate the testing conditions. Washington Sundar, Mukesh Chaudhary, and Akash दीप (Akash Deep) also joined the list of players who were dismissed for ducks. With a total of five batsmen returning to the pavilion without scoring a single run, the team plunged into deep trouble and failed to recover. The situation was so precarious that Team India lost four crucial wickets within the very first session of the match.
At one stage, it appeared that the Indian team would be bundled out for a score of under one hundred runs. However, coming in at the lower order, Yash Rathour played an extremely resilient and commendable knock. Facing forty-nine balls, he played an unbeaten fighting innings of forty-four runs, laced with three boundaries and three sixes, thereby guiding the team total past the one hundred run mark. Yash Rathour finished as the highest run scorer for India A in this innings.
Apart from Yash Rathour, Devdutt Padikkal contributed thirty-two runs, while Yashasvi Jaiswal added seventeen runs to the total, while none of the other batsmen managed to reach double digits. On the bowling front for New Zealand A, Simon Keen delivered a lethal spell to pick up the maximum of five wickets, shattering the Indian batting backbone, while Jack Gibson chipped in with three crucial successes. It remains to be seen how the Indian bowlers perform in this match and whether they can orchestrate a comeback against New Zealand A after this low first-innings total.