Murphy's four keeps Australia A's hopes hanging by a thread

A flurry of wickets to Todd Murphy and some tight bowling from a pair of South Australians have kept Australia A in the first four-day match against India A in Puducherry.

Staring down a first-innings deficit of 163, Murphy's four wickets and two apiece to Brendan Doggett and Liam Scott saw the hosts bowled out for 199. 

Chasing 363 to win, Nathan McSweeney (23no) and Peter Handscomb (0no) got to stumps with the score at 2-55 to kept the Aussies in the hunt. 

The Aussies wickets to fall were that of Campbell Kellaway, who was out lbw to Tushar Deshpande for a second ball duck, and Sam Konstas (20), who was out lbw (umpire's call) for the second time in the match. 

India A threatened to bat the tourists out of the game as Sai Sudharsan (39) and captain Devdutt Padikkal (59) put on a 68-run partnership for the second wicket.

But when Murphy trapped the Gujarat Titans superstar lbw, Australia regained the momentum.

Jason Sangha took an excellent caught-and-bowled before Scott took back-to-back wickets, including that of Test player Padikkal, one of the five lbws in the innings. 

Scott also clean-bowled left-hander Yash Rathod from around the wicket with a ball that decked sharply away from the batter and took out the off stump.

Murphy returned and took three wickets in as many overs as the Indians folded quickly. The final four wickets fell for 13 runs; the final nine wickets for 106 runs.  

Australia A men's tour of India 2026

1st four-day: Sep 22-25, Puducherry, 2pm AEST

2nd four-day: Sep 29-Oct 2, Puducherry, 2pm AEST

Australia A four-day squad: Brendan Doggett, Jack Edwards, Peter Handscomb, Sam Harper, Liam Hatcher, Campbell Kellaway, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Fergus O'Neill, Josh Philippe, Jhye Richardson, Corey Rocchiccioli, Jason Sangha, Liam Scott

India A four-day squad: Aman Mokhade, Ayush Pandey, Devdutt Padikkal (c), Sai Sudharsan (vc), Yash Rathod, Shaik Rasheed, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Shams Mulani, Tanush Kotian, Tushar Deshpande, Anshul Kamboj, Praful Hinge, Narayan Jagadeesan (wk), Nachiket Bhute, Vijaykumar Vyshak

1st one-day: Oct 6, Puducherry, 3pm AEDT

2nd one-day: Oct 9, Puducherry, 3pm AEDT

3rd one-day: Oct 11, Puducherry, 3pm AEDT

Australia A one-day squad: Mahli Beardman, Nikhil Chaudhary, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Aaron Hardie, Spencer Johnson, Sam Konstas, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitch Owen, Josh Philippe, Tanveer Sangha, Liam Scott, Lachlan Shaw

India A one-day squad: Priyansh Arya, Sai Sudharsan, Devdutt Padikkal (vc), Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Rajat Patidar, Kumar Kushagra (wk), Nishant Sindhu, Vipraj Nigam, Arshin Kulkarni, Arshad Khan, Naman Dhir, Hardik Pandya, Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Gurjapneet Singh, Yash Thakur