India A Win the Last Word: Shedge and Nigam Rescue 275, Bowlers Finish It by 49 Runs

Dead rubbers have a reputation they rarely deserve. Australia A had already taken the series, India A had been beaten twice by big margins, and yet the third match in Puducherry produced the most evenly fought innings of the week from both sides — and a home win built, fittingly, on the lower middle order that had so often been exposed earlier in the series.

India A 275 all out (47.3 overs). Australia A 226 all out (46.2 overs). India A won by 49 runs. Vipraj Nigam, with 40 from 44 balls and 1 for 47 from his ten overs, was Player of the Match. Australia A won the series 2-1, and Nathan McSweeney was Player of the Series.

Put in to bat, India A finally got the start they had been looking for. Priyansh Arya and Prabhsimran Singh took 82 from the first powerplay and put on 83 before Prabhsimran was caught by McSweeney off Liam Scott in the 11th over. Then came the familiar wobble: Devdutt Padikkal went two overs later, Arya for 49 in the 16th, Rajat Patidar caught and bowled by Ben Dwarshuis, and Nishant Sindhu caught and bowled by Will Sutherland. Five wickets had fallen for 35, and India A were 118 for 5 in the 20th over.

Ruturaj Gaikwad (33 from 57) and Suryansh Shedge steadied things to 159 before Mitchell Owen bowled Gaikwad. Then Shedge and Nigam added 85 from 77 balls for the seventh wicket — the partnership that decided the match. Shedge reached fifty from 49 balls and made 66 with two sixes; Nigam hit six fours in his 40. Anukul Roy's 13 not out added a few more at the end, and 275 was a total India A had to defend rather than one they had to apologise for.

The bowling then did what it had not managed in the first two games: it held its nerve in the middle overs. Nigam trapped Josh Philippe lbw in the 15th over and Sindhu had Scott caught behind the very next over, both wickets at 82. Gurjapneet Singh removed McSweeney and Owen, Yash Thakur took two in the closing overs, and Sindhu's run out of Nikhil Chaudhary was the turning point of the back end. Anukul Roy's six overs cost only 19.

Australia A's bowlers did good work in the first half of the day. Dwarshuis and Sutherland took three wickets each and Scott two, and the five-for-35 spell in India A's top order owed plenty to the way they kept coming back after the opening stand. The one stretch they could not control was the Shedge–Nigam partnership.

With the bat, Philippe reached fifty from 38 balls and Australia A were 82 for 0 at the drinks break in the 15th over, well ahead of the rate. Two wickets at 82 changed the shape of the chase. Lachlan Shaw (31) and McSweeney (39) put on 58 for the third wicket, and at 177 for 4 in the 36th over the equation was still workable. Then McSweeney fell to Gurjapneet Singh, Chaudhary was run out, and the last six wickets went for 49 runs in under 11 overs.

We weren't at the ground. Both openings went well for the batting side — 82 without loss in the first ten overs for India A, 61 without loss for Australia A — and both middle orders struggled once the shine was off, with India A losing five for 35 and Australia A six for 49. Wickets came in clusters on both sides, which suggests that once a set batter fell, the new one found starting difficult. Across the two innings, 501 runs were scored for 20 wickets — a fair contest between bat and ball.

Nigam walked in at 159 for 6 in the 30th over, with the familiar threat of an India A collapse in the air. He made 40 from 44 balls, six of them fours, and stayed long enough for Shedge to play freely at the other end. Then he bowled his full ten overs for 47 and took the wicket that mattered most — Philippe, who had 56 from 48 and was taking the game away.

All-round contributions are often measured in totals. Nigam's were measured in timing: runs when the innings needed rebuilding, a wicket when the chase needed stopping.

This match didn't have a CricIntel preview — we'll have full analysis for the next encounter.

Australia A take the one-day series 2-1, after winning by 125 runs in the first match and 69 runs in the second. India A had earlier won the unofficial Test series 1-0, so the tour finishes with honours shared across the two formats. Nathan McSweeney's 194 runs, including the 123 that rescued Australia A in the opener, earned him Player of the Series.

For India A, the final match offered something the first two did not: proof that the lower middle order could carry an innings when the top order wobbled. Shedge, who also took four wickets in the first game, ends the series as one of the names to remember.