Openers Ravikumar Samarth and Abhimanyu Easwaran put on a century stand after spinner Kuldeep Yadav's fifer to keep India A in the hunt on day two of the second unofficial Test against Australia A at KSCA Stadium at Alur on Sunday. Samarth (83) and Easwaran (86) stitched 174 runs for the opening wicket to help India A reach 223 for three in 70 overs in their first innings in reply to Australia A's 346 all out at stumps.

India A still trail Australia A by 123 runs. Earlier, Kuldeep (5/91) ran through Australia A's tail as he sent back Chris Tremlin (16), Mitchell Swepson (4) and Brendan Doggett (8) in quick succession to restrict the visitors under 350. Besides Kuldeep, left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (3/90) picked up three wickets. Captain Mitchell Marsh remained stranded on unbeaten 113 off 204 balls as wickets kept tumbling from the other end.