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The first session on day three of the second unofficial Test of the two-match series belonged to Khaleel Ahmed, who broke the back of England Lions middle order in the first innings by taking four wickets in four overs for India A. At the County Ground in Northampton, England Lions were in control at 219/3 in the 51st over of the innings in response to India A’s first innings total of 348 runs before Khaleel Ahmed ran through the middle order of the opposition in a jiffy.
After nicking off Jordan Cox through to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel for 45 runs in 65 balls, Khaleel Ahmed found himself on a hat-trick by sending the likes of James Rew and George Hill back to the pavilion on consecutive balls just two overs later. Ahmed got Rew caught via Karun Nair for 10 runs before cleaning up Hill on the next delivery, and in the next over of his spell, he got Chris Woakes nicking off through to wicketkeeper Dhruv Jurel for five runs.
Tushar Deshpande got into the act a few overs later, cleaning up Max Holden for seven runs, to suddenly reduce England Lions to 243/8, still trailing India A by 105 runs. A 23-run unbeaten stand for the eighth wicket between Farhan Ahmed and Josh Tongue took England Lions to the lunch break on day three, but they are still staring down the barrel at 266/8, needing a further 82 runs to wipe off the deficit.
Below are the playing XI of England Lions and India A for second unofficial Test match:
England Lions: Tom Haines, Ben McKinney, Emilio Gay, Jordan Cox, James Rew (c)/(wk), Max Holden, George Hill, Chris Woakes, Farhan Ahmed, Josh Tongue, Eddie Jack
India A: Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Dhruv Jurel (wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Tanush Kotian, Anshul Kamboj, Tushar Deshpande, Khaleel Ahmed
