Jaiswal had 22 runs from three innings in New Zealand, and he and Rathod batted out India A’s Christchurch draw with unbeaten hundreds

Yashasvi Jaiswal had 22 runs from three innings on this India A tour when he resumed on 20 not out at Hagley Oval on the last morning. He finished on 155 not out. Jaiswal and Yash Rathod, who made an unbeaten hundred of his own, put on 247 without being separated on Tuesday, and the second unofficial Test against New Zealand A finished in a draw ten balls after tea, with India A 204 runs ahead.

Two draws in two matches leave the three-game series level going into the last one, in Lincoln from 7 November.

Two wickets in three balls

None of that looked likely in the first half-hour. Rain took more than 90 minutes out of the morning, and India A started again on 32 for 0, still 46 behind New Zealand A’s 424, in a strong wind under heavy cloud.

Jarrod McKay went straight at B Sai Sudharsan’s pads with a leg gully waiting, and with the sixth ball of the day Sai Sudharsan tucked one to Tim Robinson there. He made 11. In the next over, Brett Randell’s first ball to Devdutt Padikkal was full on off stump and straightened just enough to beat the edge and hit off stump. Padikkal, the leading run-scorer on the tour, was out for a golden duck, and India A were 35 for 2, still 43 short of making New Zealand A bat again.

Jaiswal took the attack apart

Jaiswal had made 0 in the first innings, lbw to Fraser Sheat in the first over, and 17 and 5 in Lincoln the week before. His reply to the two wickets was to walk down the pitch to McKay and drive him past mid-on, and that set the tone.

He pulled the short balls from McKay and Randell into the gap between midwicket and backward square, and cut anything wide past gully. New Zealand A were short of options. They had lost Sheat, who took 4 for 63 in the first innings, to a side strain, and left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox to a hamstring injury. Off-spinner Dean Foxcroft took most of the punishment: 47 runs off 33 balls, with four sixes. The last of those, over midwicket, brought up Jaiswal’s hundred from 119 balls.

He finished with 155 from 162 balls, 15 fours and five sixes, and passed 5,000 first-class runs along the way. The partnership came at better than a run a ball.

Rathod keeps scoring

Rathod was the quieter partner, and for a while the lucky one. A mix-up over a single should have run him out on 37. After that he gave nothing away, kept rotating the strike for Jaiswal and reached his 12th first-class hundred, off 122 balls, ten balls after tea. The teams shook hands there.

The Vidarbha left-hander now has 44 not out, 66, 13 and 100 not out on this tour, which is 223 runs at an average of 111.50. He is not in India’s Test squad for the two matches that follow.

Jurel’s hundred and the bowling

The first three days belonged to other people. Captain Dhruv Jurel made 105 after India A had slipped to 137 for 5 on the first day, Padikkal added 80 and Akash Deep hit 68 from No. 9 to get them to 346.

New Zealand A were 13 for 3 in reply before Matthew Boyle (110) and Foxcroft (93) put on 208 for the fourth wicket. Mukesh Kumar took 5 for 87 and Mohammed Siraj 4 for 118 over 35 overs, but the last three New Zealand A wickets added 133, and the hosts led by 78.

What it means for the Tests

Seven of this India A XI are in the Test squad: Jaiswal, Padikkal, Jurel, Sai Sudharsan, Akash Deep, Washington Sundar and Siraj. The first Test starts at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on 19 November.

Jaiswal needed this. Three low scores in a row on New Zealand pitches, a fortnight before a Test in Wellington, was becoming a story, and four hours at the crease ended it. Sai Sudharsan’s morning worries me more. Teams have already set that leg-side trap for him in his short Test career, it worked again on Tuesday, and New Zealand’s Test bowlers will have been watching.

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