India A defeated South Africa in the finals of tri-series tournament played at Pretoria finished a few moments ago. The visitors won a crucial toss and elected to field restricting the hosts to 267 for 7, chased down the target with ease.
Manish Pandey won the toss and elected to field first. The South African innings got off to a solid start with the first wicket putting on 22 runs, before losing 3 wickets in quick succession. At the end of 10 overs, South Africa were 34 for 3. Captain K Zondo and Behradien steadied the innings with positive intent from both batsmen. Both of them added 80 runs for the fourth wicket.
Zondo and Mulder went in quick succession to leave South Africa in trouble at 115 for 5. Behradien played with positive intent completing his fifty in 77 balls and his partner Pretorius attacked the Indian bowlers putting on 101 runs for the sixth wicket. Behradien showed his class with great power hitting at the end and completed his century in 113 balls, South Africa A posted 267 for 7 in 50 overs.
Chasing the target of 268, India A lost 2 early wickets of Karun Nair and Sanju Samson at the score of 20. At the end of 10 overs, the visitors posted 33 for 2. After the powerplay overs, Iyer and Vijay Shankar played slowly first and then took the attack to the South Africa A bowlers. Iyer completed his fifty in 74 balls while Shankar completed his half century off 68 balls. It was brilliant batting display by both these batsmen to put on 141 runs for the third wicket.
Iyer played with aggressive intent by completing his century in 111 balls and continued to show his ability with great hitting. He remained not out on 140 off 131 balls. Manish Pandey remained not out on 32. India A won the match by 7 wickets with 19 balls to spare.
Iyer was named for his match winning performance in the finals. Manish Pandey was named the man of the series with 307 runs.
India A 270 for 3 in 46.5 overs ( Iyer 140*, Shankar 72, CJ Dala 2/49) beat South Africa A 267 for 7 in 50 overs ( Behradien 101*, S Thakur 3/52, S Kaul 2/55) by 7 wickets.
