Cricket news - Duckett drags Lions to consolation win

On a day when the Indian men's senior team collapsed with the bat, the A side endured a similar fate against England Lions in the final one-day game in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday (January 31). Having already taken an unassailable 4-0 lead in the series, India A crumbled after opting to bat and they almost managed to defend the meagre total of 121 before a special innings from Ben Duckett helped Lions pull one back as a consolation.

The very first ball of the match saw Lewis Gregory disturb KL Rahul's stumps to set the tone for the rest of the day. Himmat Singh, Ankit Bawne, Rishabh Pant and Deepak Hooda all fell one after the other in a short interval. Five of the top six batsmen registered single-digit scores with only Siddhesh Lad holding firm at one end. Lad cracked seven boundaries in his 40-ball 36 and when he was dismissed, India A were reeling at 48 for 5, in danger of not crossing the three-figure mark.

With Lions continuing to chip away, it was Axar Patel and Deepak Chahar who dragged India A to 121 in 35 overs. But the chase was not a straightforward one. Deepak Chahar kept the Lions' batsmen on their toes with regular strikes with the new ball. A much-needed 44-run partnership between Duckett and Steven Mullaney put Lions on course for a comfortable win with the former doing bulk of the scoring.

Rahul Chahar did some damage to trigger another collapse with only Duckett standing tall at one end trying to prevent a whitewash. Duckett played a calculative innings and remained unbeaten on 70 off 86 deliveries, scoring more than 50% of the runs to sneak a one-wicket win for the visitors that would serve as a morale-booster ahead of the two four-day games.

Brief scores: India A 121 in 35 overs (Siddhesh Lad 36, Axar Patel 23; Jamie Overton 3-24, Tom Bailey 2-23) lost to England Lions 125/9 in 30.3 overs (Ben Duckett 70*; Deepak Chahar 3-25, Rahul Chahar 3-43) by one wicket.