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England Lions coast to five-wicket win

England Lions 255 for 5 (Stevens 58*) beat India A 254 (Pujara 73, Bopara 3-32) by five wickets
Scorecard

England Lions overcame the loss of their captain Alastair Cook to injury and cruised to their second victory of the tri-series by beating India A by five wickets and more than four overs to spare. A collective performance with the ball dismissed the visitors for 254 before contributions from all of the batsmen sealed the result.

Stand-in captain Andrew Gale asked India A to bat and the Lions' bowlers were faced with the challenge of curbing a fluent start. Abhinav Mukund and Shikhar Dhawan added 54 before Peter Trego struck the first blow, dismissing Dhawan for 24. India A progressed steadily to 112 for 2 before the slide began. The seamers struck at regular intervals and soon the score read 145 for 5 in 31 overs.

Cheteshwar Pujara held the innings together with a half-century ; India A had recovered to 234 for 6 and were poised for a final thrust. Ajmal Shahzad, however, struck twice in the 47th over and dismissed Pujara for 73. Shahzad finished with 3 for 56, while Bopara had claimed three top-order wickets to end with 3 for 32.

The Lions' top five batsmen got off to starts but all of them failed to carry on and, at 165 for 5 after 31 overs, India A held the edge. Dhawal Kulkarni and Manoj Tiwary had taken two wickets apiece. Darren Stevens and Trego, however, came together and forged a match-winning 90-run partnership for the sixth wicket. Stevens was unbeaten on 58 and Trego on 48 when the winnings runs were scored.

Eng Lions 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st38AW GaleSM Davies
2nd9IJL TrottAW Gale
3rd41IR BellIJL Trott
4th26IR BellRS Bopara
5th51DI StevensRS Bopara
6th90DI StevensPD Trego