A century from Tom Haines helped the England Lions mount a strong comeback against India A on Saturday, May 31. The Lions ended Day 2 on 237 for 2 as India A posted 557 runs on the back of Karun Nair’s 204.

Karun, who has made a strong case for an Indian Test team call-up with his performance, was supported by Dhruv Jurel and Sarfaraz Khan, as the duo scored as 94 and 92 respectively. After the loss of Sarfaraz and Jurel, India started to look for quick runs. After the wicket of Karun, the India A tail did get some starts as the likes of Harsh Dubey, Shardul Thakur and Anhsul Kamboj got some good starts and ensured the team went past 550.

For the England Lions, Josh Hull and Zaman Akhter ended with three wickets each, while Eddie Jack got two.

India A made a good start with the ball as Kamboj cleaned up Ben McKinney, but found wickets hard to come by after that. Emilio Gay provided some steady support to Haines as the duo put on a hundred stand for the third wicket. The India A fielding wasn’t up to the mark on the day as there were many dropped catches with Haines getting couple of lucky reprieves.

At 11, the England Lions opener had edged a delivery to second slip where Sarfaraz was placed, but the Indian fielder was unable to take the low attempt to his left. Then while Haines was at 83, the England batter slashed hard at a delivery from Harshit Rana and Abhimanyu Easwaran made a top effort. However, the ball went through the hands of the India A skipper.

Haines made the most of it and brought up his 15th first-class hundred and the third one this summer. England Lions continued to keep the run-rate up as they ended the day with a rate of 4.55 as the pitch started to get a bit flat as the day progressed.

The match will continue on Sunday, June 1 with Haines and Max Holden at the crease on 103 and 64.