- By Namrata Vijay
- Sat, 04 Oct 2025 08:19 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
IND-A vs AUS-A 2nd Unofficial ODI: India's star batter Tilak Varma scored a gritty knock of 94 runs, but his efforts went in vain as Australia A won the match by nine wickets and have leveled the series. During the rain-induced match, Tilak made a strong case for himself to be picked for India's ODI team on the back of his brilliant performance, but the visitors made a brilliant comeback while chasing.
Tilak entered this match on the back of his brilliant performance during the summit clash and proved his worth as the host posted a target of 246 runs since none of the batters could do much after performing well in the series opener. But after a three-hour rain delay, Australia were asked to chase 160 runs in 25 overs. They got a rain break when they were 48/0 in 5.5 overs.
After the rain break, they easily chased down the target on the back of Cooper Conolly and McKenzie Harvey's heroics. Jake-Fraser McGurk scored a gritty knock of 36 runs off 20 balls. The visitors chased the target in 16.4 overs as the Indian bowlers were having a hard time.
They were smashed for 22 fours and six sixes while they were defending, where Arshdeep Singh gave away 44 runs in the 4 overs that he bowled.
Tilak saves India's innings
Abhishek Sharma, too, was part of the team but got out on a first-ball duck. The other batters too failed to fire, but Tilak maintained his sublime form while batting at the no.3 position and faced 122 balls in his knock.
Shreyas Iyer, who had smashed a century during the series opener, too failed and left the hosts reeling at 17/3. Tilak and Riyan built a partnership of 101 runs, where Parag scored 58. Tilak then built another partnership of 34 runs with Ravi Bishnoi and then another partnership of 28 runs with Arshdeep Singh.
The 3rd ODI will be held on Sunday.