India A made heavy weather of a small chase before beating New Zealand A by three wickets in the first unofficial ODI cricket match here today.
Electing to bowl first, the Indians packed off the hosts for 176 before surviving some anxious moments to overhaul the target in 47.2 overs.
The match took two days to complete after it was postponed yesterday due to unfit pitch at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval here.
The Indians kept it tight in the bowling department with Jaydev Unadkat being the wrecker-in-chief with a four-wicket haul.
The Kiwis suffered the first jolt in the sixth over when opener Hamish Rutherford went after facing 13 deliveries that could not fetch him a single run.
The hosts were five down for 51 runs before wicketkeeper-batsman Derek de Boorder (62) and skipper Andrew Ellis (45) combined for an 80-run stand. Boorder was the more aggressive of the two batsmen, slamming four boundaries and a six in his 85-ball knock.
But apart from that, New Zealand A’s batting floundered miserably as Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Rahul Sharma picked up two wickets apiece in their respective quota of 10 overs.