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The series will act as preparation for Nepal to claim one of the three remaining spots at the 2026 T20 World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Jun-2025Nepal have been confirmed as the first of four international teams for the 2025 Top End T20 Series to be played in Darwin from August 14 to 24. The series will act as preparation for Nepal as they look to claim one of the three remaining spots at the 2026 T20 World Cup, to be played in India and Sri Lanka early next year.Nepal are scheduled to arrive in Darwin in early August and will play a minimum of six T20s, at the DXC Arena, the TIO Stadium and Cazaly’s Arena.”We are excited and looking forward to participating in the Top End T20 Series,” Cricket Association of Nepal secretary Paras Khadka said. “It presents a valuable opportunity to prepare with strong intent and focused practice ahead of our ICC T20 World Cup Qualifiers [to be held in Oman in October].Related

• Nepal and West Indies to play 'historic' first bilateral T20I series

“Competing against quality opponents in Australian conditions will provide our players with critical exposure, helping them better understand their game and grow as professional cricketers.”Nepal brought in former Australia batter Stuart Law as their head coach in March this year, after which they played a T20I tri-series against Netherlands and Scotland in Glasgow, where they finished second.After the T20s in Darwin, Nepal are scheduled to play their first bilateral T20I series against West Indies, in Sharjah at the end of September.”We could not be more excited to welcome the Nepal national cricket team to the Northern Territory and Top End T20 Series for the first time,” Northern Territory Cricket CEO, Gavin Dovey said. “Nepal has developed a fanatical following in their home country and among the Nepali diaspora, so we are delighted that all Nepalese eyes will be on the Northern Territory as we play a role in their cricketing journey.”The remaining participants and schedule of the Top End T20 Series will be announced in the coming weeks.

It was their first ODI series victory in Zimbabwe

Abhimanyu Bose17-Dec-2023An excellent all-round effort from Curtis Campher and Andy Balbirnie’s half-century helped Ireland win the rain-hit third ODI and win their first men’s ODI series in Zimbabwe 2-0.Career-best bowling performances from Campher and Graham Hume helped restrict Zimbabwe to 197 in 40 overs before Balbirnie, Campher and Harry Tector knocked off the target with 13 balls to spare in Harare.Set a DLS-adjusted target of 201 from 40 overs, Ireland lost Paul Stirling early, but a 70-run stand between Balbirnie and Campher meant that the visitors were set to finish their tour of Zimbabwe on a high barring a spectacular collapse.While Balbirnie struggled to get the ball away in the first ten overs, opting for a more watchful approach on a tricky surface, Campher followed up his half-century from the second ODI with a fluent 40 with six boundaries before a stunning catch from Wellington Masakadza at midwicket denied him consecutive fifties.Balbirnie continued to hold one end down as Tector then went about being the aggressor as they added another 63 runs to consolidate Ireland’s position.Tector got a leading edge to Sikandar Raza off Luke Jongwe on 33 after Balbirnie reached his half-century off 76 balls, but Balbirnie then shifted gears, hitting 32 runs off his next 26 balls, to complete the chase with ease. A six off a Jongwe slower ball and sweep over short fine leg off Raza were the highlights of an innings which saw Balbirnie grow in confidence. In the process, he became just the fourth Irishman to hit 3000 ODI runs.Lorcan Tucker hit back-to-back boundaries to crown Ireland winners of both the ODI and T20I series.Ireland had started well after inserting Zimbabwe as Mark Adair kicked things off with a maiden. Hume gave Ireland the early breakthrough when Tinashe Kamunhukamwe edged him to second slip in the second over and Adair followed it up with another maiden.But Gumbie and Kaitano dug in to ensure Zimbabwe did not lose any more wickets in the first powerplay, despite a couple of edges evading the slips cordon.The two steadily added 43 runs before some sharp fielding from Tector at backward point saw him throw the stumps down to send Kaitano packing in the 14th over. Innocent Kaia, back in the side after being dropped in the second ODI due to Ryan Burl’s concussion, was out lbw to Campher next over. Raza then joined Gumbie at the crease, but just as they started to milk the spinners Theo van Woerkom and Andy McBrine for some quick runs, rain stopped play.When the game resumed after a two-hour delay, Zimbabwe were immediately on the front foot. Raza pulled a Theo van Woerkom drag-down for six while Gumbie got a streaky boundary off Craig Young while trying to steer him to deep third.Gumbie soon got to his second ODI fifty, off 80 deliveries, before Raza swept van Woerkom for four more, to bring up the fifty-run stand for the fourth wicket off 52 balls. The two continued to cash in on anything that was too short or too full, while also rotating strike with regularity.But Campher broke the innings open by having Raza caught at deep midwicket off a pull before bowling Clive Madande through the gate over for a two-ball duck in the same over. Luke Jongwe and Brandon Mavuta tried to play their shots before they both flicked Hume to George Dockrell at deep square leg in near-identical dismissals.Gumbie, who played a number of innovative scoops and ramps in his 106-ball 72, was soon run-out as Masakadza tried to run two after pulling Craig Young to long-on. Masakadza hit 24 off 19 to take Zimbabwe close to the 200-run mark, before he holed out trying to clear long-on.It was a better batting effort after disappointing displays in the first two ODIs, but not enough for Zimbabwe, who now have plenty of ponder as a disappointing streak of results continued.

The dates the 2023 final are not public yet, but ESPNcricinfo understands it will be held before the Ashes

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2022The final of the ongoing ICC World Test Championship will be held at The Oval in June 2023, while Lord’s will stage the final of the next edition, in 2025, the ICC announced today.While the dates for the 2023 WTC final have not yet been confirmed, ESPNcricinfo has learned that it will be held before the Ashes, which starts on June 16 in Birmingham.This will make it three WTC finals in a row to be played in England, with the first one, in 2021, being held at Southampton’s Ageas Bowl. New Zealand beat India to win the trophy then. On that occasion, the final was originally scheduled for Lord’s, but the Ageas Bowl’s on-site hospitality arrangements made it the top choice because of the Covid-19 situation at the time.The WTC final is contested by the top two teams on the table at the end of each cycle – Australia lead the table in the ongoing cycle, followed by South Africa; Sri Lanka are third, with India and Pakistan behind them. There are still some matches left in this cycle, so the standings could well change by the time the finalists are decided.In fact, South Africa were leading the table for a while, but a 2-1 series loss in England last month has pushed them down. They have two series remaining in this cycle – against Australia (away) and West Indies (at home). They face tough competition from India, who also have two Test series remaining in this cycle – against Bangladesh (away) and Australia (at home). Australia have nine more Tests in this cycle, while Pakistan and Sri Lanka, too, have a shot at making the top two.”We are delighted to be hosting next year’s ICC World Test Championship Final at The Oval which has such a rich legacy and an amazing atmosphere, which is ideal for such an important fixture on the calendar,” ICC chief executive Geoff Allardice said in a statement. “Following that we will then take the 2025 Final to Lord’s which will provide a fitting backdrop to the ultimate Test.”Truncated IPL 2023 for England and Australia players?
England have released their home schedule for next summer. It starts with a one-off Test against Ireland from June 1. The Ashes are then scheduled to begin from June 16 in Birmingham. And that could mean some England and even Australia players might leave the IPL early. While the dates for IPL 2023 have not been released yet, last year the tournament stretched till the last week of May, and the 2023 edition is expected to be longer.

Tax exemptions from government and Covid-19 pandemic are key factors

Nagraj Gollapudi29-May-2021The BCCI will ask the ICC to defer the decision on where the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup will be played this October-November. Board president Sourav Ganguly informed the members at a virtual special general meeting (SGM) on Saturday that the BCCI will ask the ICC for another month and utilise this time to gauge various factors that could determine if India will be fit to hold the marquee event.Ganguly is expected to place this request formally at the ICC Board meeting on June 1. In a media release after the SGM, the BCCI said the members – state associations – had “authorised” the board’s office bearers to write to the ICC to seek an “extension” to take an “appropriate call” on hosting the T20 World Cup.Why does the BCCI want more time?
There are two reasons. The Covid-19 pandemic has added another layer of complexity to an already knotted issue of tax exemption that the ICC wants the BCCI to sort with the Indian government. The ICC wants a complete tax waiver for it to maximise on the profits derived from running a global tournament.At the SGM, the members were informed that the BCCI would end up paying the Indian government close to 46% of the estimated total revenue for hosting the T20 World Cup. That amount, an official who attended the meeting, said was close to INR 900 crore (US $125 million approximately).The tax exemption has been ICC’s longstanding request to the BCCI, who were named hosts for two world tournaments in the current commercial cycle: the men’s T20 World Cup (October-November 2021) and the men’s ODI World Cup slated for October 2023.There is a precedent for ICC’s concern: having failed to procure the tax exemption from the government in the 2016 T20 World Cup, the global body withheld close to US$20-30 million from the BCCI’s share of the central revenue pool. Last year, the ICC even threatened to withdraw the BCCI’s hosting rights for the T20 World Cup if the Indian government didn’t offer a tax waiver.Last December, during another meeting, the BCCI told the state associations that the board was looking at finding a middle ground and could end up paying anywhere around INR 200-900 crore as tax to the Indian government for hosting the World Cup. The members had then said that despite a hefty amount involved, the BCCI should pay, if necessary, but host the tournament.Members have been informed the board’s talks with the Indian government have been encouraging, with a solution likely to be found.The BCCI plans to conduct the remainder of IPL in UAE. Will the T20 World Cup follow?•Sharjah Cricket

The second significant challenge for the BCCI is to see whether all 16 participating teams of the T20 World Cup would want to travel to India during the pandemic. The second wave of the pandemic has brought the country to a near standstill, with several states in the midst of consecutive lockdowns. The governments of several countries have red-listed travellers from India, in some cases even their own citizens, like Australia did.In April, just before the IPL started, the BCCI had proposed nine venues to the ICC: Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Lucknow, Dharamsala, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad, which was also marked to host the final on November 14.However, the ICC had to cancel a routine inspection in April after India was put on the red list by the UAE, where the global cricket body’s headquarters are based.Internally, the BCCI has acknowledged the concerns players and their respective countries will have about travelling to India. These include: a probable third wave coupled with the challenge of creating a tournament bubble across multiple venues, which would entail a lot of travel.As a fall-back option, the BCCI has decided the UAE would be the cover. On Saturday, the BCCI top brass told the members that the board would still retain the hosting rights even if the tournament was hosted in the UAE.How long can the ICC wait?
After the ICC Board’s June 1 meeting, the global body’s annual conference is scheduled from July 18. Usually the ICC sets up a local organising committee comprising its own officials as well as those from the host board at least a year before the event.One significant concern for the ICC will be procuring the clearances from the governments including the host country for the 16 teams to arrive in time for the tournament. That would also include the necessary quarantine period as well as putting together biosecure bubbles. That travel is one key area where teams can get exposed was identified as an area of concern by the BCCI once the IPL had been postponed at the mid-way stage.

India’s legspinner bagged 4 for 19 in four overs to stun the defending champions Australia in the Women’s T20 World Cup opener

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-20209.5 Poonam Yadav to Healy, OUT, caught and bowled! Just a 63kph leg break does the trick. This was a better length, Healy came down to it but wasn’t to the pitch, tried to work to long-on, closed the face, got a leading edge and it floated back to Yadav!
AJ Healy c & b Poonam Yadav 51 (35b 6×4 1×6) SR: 145.7111.3 Poonam Yadav to Haynes, OUT, Poonam strikes another blow! Lobs up a wrong’un, it lures the batter out and goes past the outside edge. Delightful flight and India are back in this. Bhatia continues her fine shift behind the stumps
RL Haynes st †Bhatia b Poonam Yadav 6 (8b 0x4 0x6) SR: 75.0011.4 Poonam Yadav to Perry, OUT, Poonam is on a roll, she sends back Perry for a golden duck. She lobs up another wrong’un, Perry dares to step out. She is done in by the variation. Poonam sneaks through the gate and hits leg stump. What a double-strike from Poonam
EA Perry b Poonam Yadav 0 (1b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.0011.5 Poonam Yadav to Jonassen, no run, Nearly a hat-trick for Poonam. Bhatia, the keeper, drops it in the end. Fairly difficult chance for the keeper. Poonam lobs up another googly, draws an outside edge as the batter pushes away from the body, the keeper follows the ball, but it pops out of the gloves13.5 Poonam Yadav to Jonassen, OUT, 58kph, tossed up on middle and breaks away sharply, yet another wrong’un. She finds the edge again. Top work from Bhatia this time, after denying Poonam the hat-trick in her previous over. She snaffles it and sends Jonassen back. She dared to sweep against the break and paid the price
JL Jonassen c †Bhatia b Poonam Yadav 2 (6b 0x4 0x6) SR: 33.33

Ponting’s lessons from a decade ago helped Finch make headway in his battle to prove himself as a Test opener in home conditions

Daniel Brettig in Perth14-Dec-20181:53

Kartik: Finch needed this innings to resurrect his Test career

Ricky Ponting’s hard-earned lessons from a series of epic jousts with Ishant Sharma a decade ago have helped Aaron Finch to make headway in his battle to prove himself as a Test match opening batsman in Australian conditions.Few have forgotten Ishant’s famous nine-over spell at the WACA in January 2008, where he tied Ponting in knots with a series of prancing inswingers before dismissing him on the way to India’s victory. Later that year he dismissed Ponting three innings in a row to help secure Anil Kumble’s team a series win at home, leaving Ponting to remark how difficult and different a challenge the then teenaged Ishant posed to him.ALSO READ: Australia call in Ponting for test of fundamentalsTen years on, Ponting was a notable presence for Australian training on match eve in Perth, acting on observations he had shared with the coach Justin Langer in the aftermath of their opening defeat to India in Adelaide. For Finch, who had been dismissed by Ishant in the first innings of the series and then struggled against him in the second, the advice allowed him to scrap to a half-century, albeit less fluently than his opening partner Marcus Harris.”It was really good because it was so simple,” Finch said of Ponting’s counsel. “It was basically around covering my off stump and lining up slightly different my alignment, where I want to hit the ball, with the ball swinging back in obviously.”Ishant troubled him a little bit at the start of his career in Australia, troubled Punter [Ponting], moving the ball back in I think, so it was good to have someone to chat to who’s had to work through that and alignment and things like that. It wasn’t anything I went out in the game with as such, it was more just moving my guard slightly further over.”Watching how Finch started his innings as part of a stand that would grow to be worth 112 vital runs, Ponting said he had been able to see how Finch had to find a way to play straighter and not get caught with his head tilting too far to the off side when Ishant moved the ball back in to him.”I know what Aaron Finch is going through because those were the things I battled through at times in my career as well,” Ponting said on Seven during the lunch break. “With balance and maybe getting my head too far towards mid-off rather than going straight down the wicket. I spoke with Justin after the game in Adelaide and he invited me down yesterday. I must admit I’m always a little uncomfortable doing it, but as long as the players are open to it and I can go and feel like I can help out I certainly will.”It’s been a good start from Finchy today, he does get a little bit lazy, you can see his front foot planting towards cover at the back end of that [first] session, he needs to open up his front foot a little bit, look to access the ball to be able to hit down the ground to mid on, but so far it’s been a good start, some promising signs.”Reflecting on a lively Perth pitch, which offered pace, bounce, lateral and vertical movement across the day, never more so than when Jasprit Bumrah was armed with the second new ball, Finch reckoned that Australia were now in a position to dictate terms. This was particularly so due to the fact that cracks in the pitch are set to open up and add still further to the variation.”It’s going to be one of those games that’ll be a real grind for both sides,” Finch said. “The position we’re in we would have taken at the start of the day, no doubt, especially winning the toss and batting.”When the ball starts seaming off good parts of the wicket and quite dramatically at times, I think that’s when you know you need to tighten up but you have to also be in a position to cash in on some balls that you can hit, otherwise you get stuck on the crease, stuck in two minds and end up letting the wicket get you out without the wicket doing anything. So you have to be really proactive and take that out of play as much as you can.”

James Anderson says that England’s cricketers must focus solely on their own preparations in the build-up to this winter’s Ashes, and ignore the fall-out from the Ben Stokes incident

Andrew Miller04-Oct-2017James Anderson says that England’s cricketers must focus solely on their own preparations in the build-up to this winter’s Ashes, and tackle the team dynamics when they reconvene as a squad at the end of the month, as the fall-out from the Ben Stokes incident continues to overshadow the build-up to their biggest challenge of the year.Stokes’ hopes of being retained in England’s Ashes plans are very much in the balance. Though he is expected to be retained on the ECB’s list of centrally contracted players, due to be unveiled this week, Avon and Somerset Police are still investigating the incident that took place outside Mbargo nightclub in the wake of England’s ODI victory over West Indies last Monday.But regardless of whether Stokes is able to make the trip or not, Anderson retains the belief that England can emerge triumphant from what will be his fourth Ashes campaign in Australia, so long as each of the squad members can keep their eyes on the prize ahead of their departure on October 28.”What we need to do as a team, whether the things that are happening happen or not, the next few weeks are about getting yourself ready as an individual to play in an Ashes series,” Anderson told ESPNcricinfo. “From my point of view I’ll be bowling at Lancashire, getting in the gym, trying to stay fit, and getting ready for that challenge when we get over there. That’s all we can do. Prepare yourself as an individual and when we get there, we can galvanise as a team.”Already, however, the Stokes incident has guaranteed that England’s traditionally robust welcome from Australia’s fans and media will be stepped up an extra level or two. And Anderson, who has endured two 5-0 whitewashes either side of a series-winning haul of 24 wickets on the 2010-11 tour, knows more than any England player about the unique challenges of playing Down Under.”You’ve got to prepare yourself for that,” he said “The fans are very passionate about cricket in Australia, but at the same time they are knowledgable and if you give them something back they’ll embrace it. If you perform well, they’ll embrace it, and respect you for it. What we’ve got to focus on is performing well, and if you can do that, everything else will take care of itself.”Anderson was speaking ahead of the PCA Awards dinner, English cricket’s traditional end-of-season get-together in London. The night offers an opportunity for players from all counties to let their hair down after a tough season, although in light of the events in Bristol last week – and the ECB’s subsequent investigations into the England team culture – several players are likely to be more guarded in their celebrations than might ordinarily have been the case.Nevertheless, both Andrew Strauss, the director of England cricket, and Trevor Bayliss, the coach, have reiterated in the past week the importance of allowing players to let off steam during high-profile series, and Anderson admitted he did not yet know what the management’s attitude towards nights out would be during the Australia campaign.”I’m not sure how things are going to go,” Anderson said. “We are obviously going to speak as a team when we get out there but, at the minute, we’re just trying to prepare for the cricket we are going to play out there, and get ourselves in the best shape to compete with Australia.”On a personal note, Anderson heads to Australia in some of the best form of his already extraordinary career. He claimed 39 wickets in seven Tests against South Africa and West Indies this summer, and crucially managed to stay fit throughout, having missed eight Tests through injury in the previous two years.”The summer’s gone better than I would have expected,” he said. “At the start of the summer I was with Lancashire and got an injury or two, which was quite frustrating, but when I got the chance to play in the Test matches, I knew I was bowling well so I knew that if I could stay on the field, then I’d be in a good place”It’s been one of those summers. It’s been a good patch for me, a hot patch, everything has gone my way. Even my bad balls have been getting edges, so it’s one of those things you’ve got to make the most of.”In the course of the season, he notched up another notable landmark during the Lord’s Test against West Indies, when he became only the third fast bowler, and sixth overall, to reach 500 Test wickets. At the age of 35, he’s determined to keep enjoying the game while he can.”For me, there’s no sort of target or goal,” he said. “My sole purpose is to stay fit, stay on the field, and contribute to England winning games of cricket. I’m glad that I did that this summer, and hope I can keep doing it in the future.”As for the challenge of winning in Australia and banishing the memories of England’s painful defeat on the last tour in 2013-14, Anderson said: “I don’t know if it’s unfinished business but it’s an exciting time for us.”We’ve got a lot of players who haven’t played in an Ashes tour before, and from an Englishman’s point of view, playing an Ashes in Australia, if you can win there that is the biggest accolade you can get from a team sport in cricket. It’s a huge thing but it can be so enjoyable if you go about it the right way.”

Kingsmead has provided an assurance that the outfield issue which caused the Test between South Africa and New Zealand to be abandoned will not affect any other matches this season

Firdose Moonda26-Aug-2016Kingsmead has provided an assurance that the outfield issue which caused the first Test between South Africa and New Zealand to be abandoned earlier this week will not affect any other matches this season. Durban do not host a match for another five and a half weeks, when South Africa play Australia in an ODI on October 5, and acting CEO Rajesh Behari insists they will be ready.”We are already hard at work taking measures to ensure that the condition of the outfield does not impact on both international and domestic fixtures in the future,” Behari said in a statement.Already, ground staff at Kingsmead have filled the exposed patches with top soil and have fertilised the field to prompt the grass to grow as they wait for the ICC’s verdict after the outfield was rated poor by ICC match referee Andy Pycroft. CSA had 14 days from the issue of the report card to respond to it. The ground will then either receive a warning or a fine up to US$15,000.In mitigation of the state of Kingsmead’s outfield, which was deemed too soft for play on three days of the Test match, was that Durban experienced unseasonal rainfall of more than 400 millimetres in July and 65mm on the second night of the match. The heavy downpours meant the outfield was not allowed to settle after it was decompacted and relaid mid-June, following what CSA said were complaints by the South African and New Zealand players after limited-overs matches were played there last winter. It has since been reported by the that the New Zealand players did not have an issue with Kingsmead, but only said they found the Centurion outfield too hard.Both SuperSport Park and Kingsmead had work done to their outfields in preparation for this series but SuperSport Park’s revamp took place in April and only involved overseeding with winter grass, not digging. Kinsgmead’s happened more than two weeks after Comrades’ Marathon, which finished there on May 29, and saw 40 tonnes of sand removed and a new covering laid over it. It has since been claimed the digging at Kingsmead was also done too deeply. CSA oversaw both processes.In this statement, Behari said the combination of all the factors contributed to the abandoned Test. Like CSA he acknowledged that his ground staff had done “everything in their power to deal with the problems with the softened outfield, but that their role was limited in scope by the match officials in charge of the Test once the wet outfield complications developed”.Umpires Ian Gould and Richard Illingworth asked the ground staff not to use any artificial means of drying the surface, fearing the super sopper would worsen the soggy outfield, and left it to natural sunshine and wind to dry and harden the ground. There was not enough of either for play to be possible but those watching from a distance, who saw clear blue skies on television and a tacky outfield below, were left to questions whether Kingsmead is up to international standard.Behari is determined to reassure those critics with pristine conditions for the rest of the summer, in which Kingsmead will host two ODIs, three franchise first-class games, four franchise one-day cup matches and five franchise T20 matches. There are no more Test matches scheduled for Kingsmead this summer but it may come into contention for next season’s Boxing Day match.”We benchmark this stadium by the very best in the world and are determined to ensure that each and every match and Test matches in particular are memorable at this venue,” Behari said. “The only ground to have hosted more Test matches in South Africa is Newlands and our rich Test cricket heritage here at is something that we guard unwaveringly. Summer rains are a reality in Durban and we want to make sure that this ground, which has a good reputation for drainage and dealing with rain delays, will be in top condition for the upcoming domestic fixtures as well as the two internationals against Australia and Sri Lanka.”

Australia A dominated the first day in Chennai as they bowled India A out for 135 and then shaved off 43 from the deficit without loss

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu in Chennai29-Jul-2015
ScorecardAshton Agar returned figures of 12-3-23-2 in the first innings•K Sivaraman

Ahead of the first unofficial Test against against Australia A in Chennai, India A coach Rahul Dravid called for quick, bouncy tracks to challenge the batsmen but instead, the first match served up a slow, low pitch. The track on the first day of the second game was livelier and the first ball of the day summed it up as Gurinder Sandhu extracted excellent carry to Matthew Wade. The challenge was on.The opportunity beckoned and it was the visitors who grabbed it, bowling India A out for 135 in 68.5 overs. The left-arm spinners, Steve O’Keefe and Ashton Agar dismantled the top and middle order, claiming combined figures of 29-8-53-4 before Sandhu made light work of the tail in a spell that read 7.5-2-15-3.Coming together at 53 for 4, Karun Nair and Naman Ojha mounted the lone source of resistance for India A, grinding 56 runs in 197 balls for the fifth wicket. The pair left balls outside off, blocked resolutely, nudged it into the gaps and played out a wicket-less second session even as the pitch slowed down and posed a different challenge – variable bounce.Agar and O’Keefe plugged away, Sandhu swapped pace for offbreaks for an over, and Andrew Fekete attacked the body from around the wicket with a 5-4 leg-side field, but Naman and Karun blunted them.Naman, who celebrated the fifty partnership by swat-pulling an Agar half-tracker, seemed to have loosened the shackles after being bogged down by a clump of dots. It was his first four in 80 balls. However, it turned out to be a false dawn.Four balls later, Naman raced down the track only to be beaten in flight as Wade helped himself to a stumping. Naman’s painstaking 144-minute stay had yielded only 10. Karun then fell for 50, tamely chipping a Fekete ball to square leg, which he later described as a “lapse in concentration.”Fekete had begun well, too, having the openers – Cheteshwar Pujara and Abhinav Mukund – ducking and swaying with the new ball. Pujara and Mukund saw through the first 10 overs, adding 18 runs before Marcus Stoinis struck with his very first ball, an off-cutter that beat Pujara’s defences to hit the top of middle.Enter Virat Kohli. The MA Chidambaram Stadium, which had a decent turnout, roared. It grew louder when India’s Test captain skipped down the track and launched O’Keefe into the sightscreen in the 16th over. However, the crowd was soon hushed into silence when Agar caught Kohli in the crease with an arm ball and trapped him in front for a 42-ball 16. Four balls later, Shreyas Iyer was undone by an O’Keefe ripper that pitched on middle and leg and spun sharply with some extra bounce to tilt the off-stump back.If Kohli’s wicket was reward for accurate bowling after O’Keefe and Agar had strung together 14 consecutive dots, then Iyer’s wicket was a confidence-booster for Agar, who was playing his first competitive game since March after being sidelined by a shoulder injury.In stark contrast to the hosts’ approach, Australia A openers Cameron Bancroft and Usman Khawaja began positively, shaving 43 off the deficit in 13 overs before stumps. Varun Aaron was off-radar, slinging four no-balls while Pragyan Ojha did not get much bite. The India A bowlers will have to step up on the second day if they are to mask the batting failure and pull their side back into the game.