India A vs West Indies A: Shubman Gill, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shreyas Iyer smash fifties to steer visitors to 4-1 series win

Fifties from Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer took India A to a commanding eight-wicket win over West Indies A in the fifth and final unofficial ODI in the series. India A’s win in Antigua completed the 4-1 thrashing of the hosts.

Batting first, West Indies A scored 236 runs with Sherfane Rutherford scoring 65 and at the top of the order and Sunil Ambris contributing with a 52-ball 61. It was much of the same story for West Indies A as it had been through the course of the series. The strong start was not made the most of as they went from 77/0 to 103/6, but Rutherford stepped up to take the hosts to a respectable total.

With the help of the lower order, he steered the Windies A total to 236 with Khary Pierre chipping in with an unbeaten 35 off 34 balls.

Seamers Navdeep Saini and Deepak Chahar, and leggie Rahul Chahar — all of whom were picked for the senior squad against West Indies next month — took two wickets each.

In reply, India A only needed 33 overs to reach the target. Gill and Gaikwad opened for India A and scored 110 runs at the top of the order. Gill took charge of things from the word go - hitting eight fours and three sixes in a 40-ball 69 before falling to Rahkeem Cornwall.

Gaikwad remained alive until 15 were needed to scale the target and fell agonisingly one run short of the century mark. His 99 came with the help of 11 boundaries and three sixes off 89 balls.

Iyer had taken things over following Gill’s dismissal and put together 112 for the second wicket with Gaikwad. He remained unbeaten on 61 from 64 balls.

🌴v 🇮🇳
India A win the 5th 'ODI' by 8 wickets. #WIAvINDA pic.twitter.com/sMSHxuEvLZ

— Windies Cricket (@windiescricket) July 21, 2019

Gill topped the five-match series with 218 runs from four innings at an average of 54.50 and strike rate of 98.19 with three fifties to his credit. He, absurdly, did not find a place in the India ODI squad to take on West Indies.

BRIEF SCORES: West Indies A: 236 all out (Rutherford 65, Ambris 61; D Chahar 2/39, Saini 2/31, R Chahar 2/53) lose to India A: 237/2 (Gaikwad 99, Gill 69, Iyer 61*) by 8 wickets.