Prabhsimran Singh smashed a rapid century in the third unofficial ODI between India A and Australia A, leading the hosts in their successful pursuit of a steep target.
Australia A won the toss and batted first in the final match of the series. They got off to a terrible start, collapsing to 44-4 with Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana sharing two wickets apiece before Cooper Connolly and Lachlan Shaw stitched a 71-run partnership. Two quick wickets after that meant the visitors were reduced to 135-6, when captain Jack Edwards joined Liam Scott.
Edwards smashed 89 off 75 while Scott made 73 off 64 to rescue Australia A and take them to 316. India A employed eight bowlers, but Arshdeep (3-38) and Harshit (3-61) did the bulk of the wicket-taking.
Prabhsimran Singh leads India A's run-chase
The Punjab Kings opener, who has played 51 IPL games so far, batted alongside his domestic teammate and India's Asia Cup hero Abhishek Sharma to give the hosts a quick start. Abhishek, having made his first-ever List A golden duck in the previous match, was dismissed for 22 off 25 after an opening partnership of 83 in 11.2 overs.
Tilak Varma, who made 94 in the second game, was out cheaply as well, bringing skipper Shreyas Iyer to the crease. Prabhsimran and Iyer's partnership lasted only six overs but fetched 56 runs. When the former was dismissed on the first ball of the 20th over, he had already smashed 102 off 68 balls out of a team score of 145.
This was his sixth List A hundred to go with his six half-centuries in the format, one of which came in the first match of this series itself (56 off 53). This has taken his career average up to 43.51 and strike rate up to 107.47.
After his dismissal, Riyan Parag (62 off 55) and Iyer (62 off 58) added 117 for the fourth wicket before Vipraj Nigam's crucial 24 not out off 32 balls helped India A get over the line with two wickets and four overs remaining.
This victory helped them clinch the series 2-1. Before the unofficial ODIs, they had won the two-match unofficial Test serie 1-0.
3rd unofficial ODI, India A vs Australia A
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