India A pulled off a dominating all-round effort to defeat New Zealand A by an innings and 31 runs shortly after lunch on the third day of their first unofficial Test here.
Leg-spinner Karn Sharma and left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem bagged four-wicket hauls in both innings to restrict the visitors to 147 and 142 runs in the first and second innings, respectively.
Forced to follow-on in reply to the Indian total of 320, New Zealand A, failing to get a grip on the match, collapsed on the third day from their overnight 64 for 2 to 142 all out.
Apart from openers Jeet Raval and George Worker, none of the other batsmen crossed the 20-run mark for the visitors.
Wicket-keeper batsman Tim Seifert was the only one who was able to pick up the lethal spinners well and was largely untroubled for 35 deliveries before perishing to a sharp Karn leg-break that beat his forward push and rapped him on the pads.
Seifert was also the top scorer of his side in the first innings with 35 runs.
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The New Zealand A batting line-up was reduced to 98 for 5 inside 11 overs. The lower order then came out trying to slog the spinners out of the field but failed in their design.
The second four-day match between India and New Zealand A will be played at the same venue here on September 30.
Brief Scores: India A 320 (Shreyas Iyer 108, Rishabh Pant 67, Ish Sodhi 5-94) beat New Zealand A 147 (Seifert 35, Nadeem 4/39, Karn 4/58) and 142 (Worker 35, Karn 4/62, Nadeem 4/51) by an innings and 31 runs.
--IANS
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