4:15pm: Fraser Sheat set the tone early as his pearler of an inswinger had Yashasvi Jaiswal lbw for a first-over duck and two in two later on had India A tottering at 137 for 5. But then captain Dhruv Jurel dug in, stabilized the ship, finishing day one on 99 not out with Devdutt Padikkal's 80 the other big contribution as India A scored 346. The hosts answered with plenty of steel and staged a spirited fightback. Matthew Boyle (110) and Dean Foxcroft (93) batted India A out of the contest for long stretches and a doughty last-wicket stand of 55 between Jayden Lennox and Jarrod McKay pushed New Zealand A to 424 and a 78-run lead. Mukesh Kumar (5/87) and Mohammed Siraj (4/118) toiled hard, bowled splendidly on unerring lines and lengths and got valuable time to acclimatize to the conditions. But the final day belonged to the visitors' batters. After a string of low scores, Jaiswal finally cashed in with a fluent innings, 155 off 162 balls laced with 15 fours and five sixes and Yash Rathod - a model of patience and application in this match - added a classy century. Milestones ticked off, valuable time in the middle and ideal preparation ahead of the Test series. There was little chance of a result, the visitors had what they came for and the rain closing in made the decision easy. S Sudarshanan's match report will be up shortly. The final unofficial Test follows in Lincoln from November 7. Until next time, this is Rvel Zahid waving goodbye on behalf of Sudarshanan Seshadri and everyone else at Cricinfo
4:05pm: And that's that. The teams have decided to call it a day. Both sides have had good sessions and taken plenty of learnings and the visitors have a good assessment and measure of the conditions. Flamboyant southpaw Jaiswal and Rathod have reached their milestones and will be pretty pleased with their preparation ahead of the main course. There must have been discussions before this session: Rathod came out to get the hundred and now they're happy to head back in. With only remote chances of a result, they've happily shaken hands on a draw. Oh, and it's started to rain as well, which must have factored into the decision too
Himanshu: "Good to see Jaiswal finally getting some runs. It will help his confidence for the series ahead."
Ananth: "Its great that they have a proper set of tour matches to prepare for the conditions, but the logic of having 4 tour matches and only 2 actual tests makes no sense. Flip that around. There is little overlap between t20 and Test teams anyway so could have them concurrently. "
Deep: "Rathod has been impressive these two matches. Good backup for the middle order."
END OF OVER:52 | 7 Runs | IND-A: 276/2
- Yashasvi Jaiswal154 (161b)
- Yash Rathod95 (119b)
- Curtis Heaphy1-0-7-0
- Matthew Boyle6-0-27-0
END OF OVER:51 | 6 Runs | IND-A: 269/2
- Yashasvi Jaiswal153 (159b)
- Yash Rathod89 (115b)
- Matthew Boyle6-0-27-0
- Brett Randell14-2-62-1
3:42pm Tea, day four. India A have consolidated their lead that is now 191. Jaiswal and Rathod have added an unbroken 234 and walk back to a warm applause from their team-mates. They got together at a tricky time. India A had lost two quick wickets while still being in deficit. Jaiswal's approach even then looked unlike a batter whose side was behind in the game. Jaiswal and Rathod scored at a fair clip and have now put India A in a commanding position. Result unlikely, given we lost over 90 minutes of the morning to rain. But will be interesting to see when play resumes if India A think about a declaration. Don't go too far away.
Final over of the session
Have you checked out today's puzzles on CRICINFO GAMES yet?
END OF OVER:50 | 2 Runs | IND-A: 263/2
- Yash Rathod89 (115b)
- Yashasvi Jaiswal147 (153b)
- Brett Randell14-2-62-1
- Matthew Boyle5-0-21-0
Bumrah has linked up with India A and is seen chilling with Dhruv Jurel, who is due to come in next