Ashok Menaria produced anall-round show as India 'A' scored a convincing six-wicket victory over New Zealand 'A' in the second one-dayer to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match unofficial One-day series here.
Menaria weaved his magic at the Dr YS Rajasekhara Reddy stadium to return figures of 10-0-38-5 to help India A dismiss New Zealand A for 216 in 47.2 overs before smashing an unbeaten 37 to pocket the series for the hosts.
Apart from Menaria, Dhawal Kulkarni scalped two wickets, while Basant Mohanty and Sandeep Sharma took one wicket each after skipper Unmukt Chand won the toss and elected to field.
Important fifties
Chasing the modest target, the hosts rode on individual fifties by Chand (59) and Mandeep Singh (59) to overhaul New Zealand A's score with 11.1 overs to spare. Chand and Mandeep stitched 89 runs off 103 balls for the third wicket to lay the foundation for the chase.
Kedar Jadhav (30) and Maneria (37 off 30) then finished the job for India A, stitching an unbeaten 53-run stand in 45 balls.
Earlier, Carl Cachopa top-scored for New Zealand A with a 103-ball 80.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, Carl Cachopa top-scored for New Zealand A with a 103-ball 80.
{{/usCountry}}However, the 27-year-old South Africa-born cricketer didn't get much support from the other end as the Kiwis found the going tough against an inspired Indian bowling attack from the onset.
Chasing 217 to win, opener Robin Uthappa could not make use of the life he got early in his innings and was removed by Mark Gillespie in the fifth over.
Looking to play an uppish shot, Uthappa was caught by Daryl Mitchell. The Karnataka cricketer struck one four and a six in his 19-ball innings.
First down Aditya Tare (7) also could not stay longer and was back to the hut in the ninth over when he was caught by Luke Ronchi behind the stumps off a bouncer by Gillespie.
However, skipper Chand kept dealing in boundaries to take off the pressure.