A century to Cameron Bancroft has guided Australia A to 9 for 329 at stumps on day 2 of their four-day match against India A in Chennai.
22-year-old Bancroft made a composed 150 from 267 balls, bringing up his hundred with a six that disappeared out of the stadium. He was eventually caught by Virat Kohli off the bowling of Baba Aparajith.
As Australia’s Test batsman were struggling in the Ashes Test at Edgbaston, Bancroft pressed his senior claims.
“The dream, the goal, to be able to play at the highest level for your country and I think the only way you can do that is by scoring big hundreds,” he said. “I know that’s been a big focus for me.
“It’s not every day you get an opportunity, some days you nick off early, and that’s part of being an opening batter,” he continued. “The times that you do get in, it’s just so important to be able to go on with it and get a big score.. It’s something I’ve been really aware of when I’ve been out there batting - making sure I cash in.
“It’s obviously a goal of mine and dream of mine to be able to do that (play Test cricket) one day that’s for sure.”
Aparajith was the pick of India A’s bowlers with a five-wicket haul, while fellow spinner Pragyan Ojha finished with 3 for 99.
Earlier, Bancroft and captain Usman Khawaja put on a 111-run stand for the first wicket, chasing India’s first innings total of 135.
“The Indian batsmen especially in the middle session yesterday, we bowled really well,” Bancroft said. “It felt like we were able to build pressure, build dots, build maidens on their batters in the middle session when they only scored around 45 runs.
“They didn’t lose a wicket, but in the context of the game I thought we were on top, so having watched them go through that as a team, I definitely thought we needed to come out and be positive.
“As a team we wanted to be confident and positive and put pressure on the opposition.”
Khawaja (33) was given out LBW to Pragyan Ojha, which triggered a mini-collapse. Ojha bagged three wickets in 4 overs and was on a hat-trick after dismissing Joe Burns (8) and Peter Handscomb (0). But Bancroft combined with Callum Ferguson (54) to take Australia past India’s first innings score of 135.
Gurinder Sandhu also entertained in a cameo late in the day with four big sixes for a quick-fire 36 off 27 balls.
Steve O’Keefe (6*) and Andrew Fekete (0*) will resume tomorrow, with Australia A leading by 194 runs with one wicket in hand.
AUDIO: CAMERON BANCROFT
James Buttler
As the editor of Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
James was the full-time Media Manager at Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2007 and 2010.
James is a published author and a writer/video contributor to many cricket publications.
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