‘Unofficial’ Test: Mukesh impresses on first day

BENGALURU: Bengal pacer Mukesh Kumar bowled to a probing channel in all his spells as India ‘A’ stifled New Zealand ‘A’ to 156 for five before bad light stopped play on the opening day of the first ‘Unofficial’ Test at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium here.

Playing for a national team (India U-19, India U-23, India ‘A’ or Senior India) for the first time, the right-arm fast-medium bowler got the ball to move both ways and finished with figures of 13-4-34-3, with a wicket in each of his three spells. In fact, Mukesh got wickets with the new (4.3 overs), semi-new (35.3 overs) and old ball (57.4 overs) as only 61 overs of play was possible out of the maximum 90.

While left-arm pacers Yash Dayal (13-2-35-1) and Arzan Nagwaswalla (13-2-34-1) picked up a wicket apiece, Mukesh was the best bowler on the day by a fair distance. For the visitor, No.3 Joe Carter (73 batting off 170 balls) showed a lot of composure, having come out to bat in the fifth over. Carter has so far hit 10 fours in his innings.

BRIEF SCORES: New Zealand ‘A’ (1st innings) 156/5 in 61 overs (J Carter 73*, Mukesh 3/34) vs India ‘A’