India A-New Zealand A series ends in draw after rain washes out fourth day of third unofficial Test

The third and final unofficial Test between India A and New Zealand A ended in a draw, with the series ending in a draw.

All three four-day matches failed to produce a result. At the end of day 4, NZ A was 36/2, with Dean Foxcroft (10*) and Zak Gibson (1*) unbeaten. They trailed by 428 runs.

Earlier, New Zealand A won the toss and elected to field first.

A 175-run opening stand between Yashasvi Jaiswal (102 in 138 balls, with 16 fours and two sixes) and Sai Sudharsan (88 in 215 balls, with 11 fours) started off things for India.

Half-centuries came from the bat of Tilak Varma (81 in 164 balls, with five fours and two sixes), skipper Dhruv Jurel (71 in 95 balls, with nine fours and two sixes) and Washington Sundar (50* in 107 balls, with two fours) as India posted 464/5.

Zak Gibson (2/73) was the leading wicket-taker for NZ.

India’s batting was a big plus ahead of the Test series starting on November 19, with Devdutt Padikkal (326 runs in three matches and five innings at an average of 65.20, with a century and a fifty) being the top run-scorer. After a few poor scores, Yashasvi Jaiswal (279 runs in three matches and five innings at an average of 69.75, with two centuries) also scored back-to-back tons.

Sai Sudharsan (231 runs in three matches and five innings at an average of 46.20, with two fifties) and skipper Jurel (179 runs in three matches and four innings at an average of 44.75, with a century and a fifty) also played some fine knocks for India. Uncapped batter Yash Rathod (223 runs in two matches at an average of 111.50, with a century and a fifty) also was a big positive for India.

Auqib Nabi (six wickets in a match) and Mohammed Siraj (four wickets in a match) were the leading wicket-takers for India.

India Test squad for two NZ Tests: Shubman Gill [C], Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul [VC], Devdutt Padikkal, Rishabh Pant [WK]*, Dhruv Jurel [WK], Ravindra Jadeja, Anshul Kamboj, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Sai Sudharsan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Siraj.