Mukesh Kumar's 6-fer puts India A in the hunt against Australia A in the first unofficial Test

Fast bowler Mukesh Kumar's six-wicket haul helped India A remain hopeful during their first unofficial Test against Australia A in Mackay on Friday. Australia A started the second day at 99/4, with their captain Nathan McSweeney (29*) and Cooper Connolly (14*) remaining unbeaten. Earlier, they had lost Border-Gavaskar Trophy starting spot contenders Sam Konstas (0), Cameron Bancroft (0), Marcus Harris (17) and Beau Webster (39), two of which went to Mukesh. Mukesh ended the 51-run partnership with McSweeney by dismissing Connolly for 37 runs. Josh Philip was also dismissed by Mukesh for four runs. Nitish Kumar Reddy dismissed McSweeney after scoring 39 runs in 131 balls with the help of four fours.

Australian batting could not put up much of a fight against the Indian fast bowlers and collapsed for 195 runs.

Mukesh took six wickets for 46 runs in 18.4 overs. Prasidh Krishna took three wickets for 59 runs in 18 overs while Nitish got one wicket.

Australia A took a lead of 88 runs over India A, who were all out for just 107 runs in their first innings. Devdutt Padikkal (36 from 77 balls, with two fours) and Sai Sudarshan (21 from 35 balls, with one four) and Navdeep Saini (23 from 42 balls, with two fours and one six) made some important innings for India. Played innings.

Brendan Doggett (6/15) was the best bowler in 11 overs for Australia A. Jordan Buckingham got two wickets while Todd Murphy and Fergus O'Neill got one wicket each.

India A, meanwhile, is playing its second innings and will aim to take a big lead.