India A have beaten New Zealand A by six wickets in their second One Day match in Visakhapatnam to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the best of three series.
Behind 80 from Carl Cachopa, New Zealand posted 216 all out in the first innings. The Indian top order comfortably reached their target after 38.5 overs, though had New Zealand taken their chances in the field, it could have been a much closer contest.
Having lost the toss New Zealand were put into bat and made solid progress to be 47 for one after nine overs. The next 20 overs however saw wickets fall at regular intervals and New Zealand were in a precarious position at 121 for five after 30 overs.
A timely 68-run sixth wicket partnership between Cachopa and Andrew Ellis (34) looked to have New Zealand back on track, only for both batsmen to be dismissed within eight runs of each other. A late 14 from Adam Milne pushed New Zealand past the 200 mark, but it was still short of a par score.
India were reduced to 44 for two in the early stages of their reply, with Mark Gillespie picking up both scalps. India could have been in further strife had New Zealand held on to their catches, while Anton Devcich also had a wicket disallowed due to a front-foot no-ball.
Unmukt Chand and Mandeep Singh both contributed 59 for India, before Kedhar Jadhav (30 not out) and Ashok Menaria (37 not out) made the remaining required runs to secure the host’s second six wicket victory in a row.
Gillespie finished with figures of two for 62 from ten overs, while Milne and Matt Henry both had a wicket apiece.
The third match is to be played on Thursday at 9:00am local time (3:30pm NZ time).
