Ten players of South Africa A hospitalized during India tour

De Kock, however, looked in good nick and forged a 48-run stand with Omphile Ramela, who made 26 before Axar Patel got the better of him, to put them on the road to recovery. It was India A’s first victory in the tri-series. However, they were forced to play as the South African team did not have enough players on the field. SA team management requested India A coach Rahul Dravid whether he could allow one of his players to field for them, and the former India captain agreed. After scoring just one run in the first 16 balls he faced, Agarwal hammered six fours in the next 21.

It has happened before when Sachin Tendulkar once fielded for Pakistan, but on Sunday at the Chepauk India A’s 12 man Mandeep Singh turned up in South Africa A colours to field. Vilas belted three sixes and three fours on his way to a run-a-ball 50, but then became Dhawan’s second victim.

Though they are widely regarded for their batting prowess, Chand and Agarwal share an identical problem when it comes to building their innings. Chand’s 94-ball knock had eight boundaries and two sixes in it after being dropped twice on naught in the same over with the unlucky bowler being left-arm seamer Lonwabo Tsotsobe.

Things, meanwhile, went from bad to worse for South Africa A. Reports emerged that seven of their players were down with various illnesses, and so, when Mthokozisi Shezi hobbled off with an injury, he had to be replaced on the field by Hendrikus Coertzen, the South African video analyst.

In fact both openers were very cautious to begin with as only two runs were scored after first 5.1 overs. Agarwal took the backseat for a brief bit as Chand got stepped on the pedal, but he was back to being the aggressor as he raced to his century in the 31st over. Leg spinner Eddie Leie was smashed for 74 runs in his 10 overs while the pacers too were sent packing.

Even Dean Elgar (1/69) had a sheepish smile on his face as Chand missed a sweep and was trapped in front of the stumps.

There was another interesting development as the boundary ropes were taken at least 10 yards behind from where they were during the last match between India “A” and Australia “A”. He gave away 32 runs. Karun Nair, who came in at the fall of the second wicket, scored the winning runs with a four.