Christchurch: Yashasvi Jaiswal roared back into form with a blazing unbeaten 155 and Yash Rathod compiled a composed 100 not out as India A batted out the final day of the second unofficial Test against New Zealand A to secure a draw at Hagley Oval, Christchurch, on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
The pair added an unbroken 247 runs for the third wicket, shutting the door on any New Zealand A victory push and giving the tourists a timely boost ahead of the two-Test series against the Black Caps.
India A finished their second innings on 282 for 2, a lead of 204 runs, when the two captains shook hands shortly after tea on the fourth day. The match had begun with India A posting 346 in their first innings, built around captain Dhruv Jurel's 105 and Devdutt Padikkal's 80, with Akash Deep contributing 68 lower down the order.
New Zealand A replied with 424, thanks to Matthew Boyle's 110 and Dean Foxcroft's 93, while Mukesh Kumar claimed five wickets and Mohammed Siraj picked up four. That left the home side with a first-innings lead of 78 runs and the initiative going into the final day.
The last day began with India A on 32 without loss, with Jaiswal and Sai Sudharsan having survived a testing new-ball spell. The morning, however, brought two quick blows. Sudharsan fell for 11 and Padikkal was dismissed first ball for a duck, leaving India A at 35 for 2 and still trailing.
At that point, with the deficit not yet erased and the home bowlers sensing an opening, the match could have tilted decisively. Instead, Jaiswal and Rathod produced a partnership that steadily, and then emphatically, took the game away from New Zealand A.
Jaiswal took charge from the start of the stand. He reached his fifty from 67 balls, welcomed off-spinner Foxcroft with a six, and continued to attack whenever the bowlers offered width or flight. Foxcroft, in particular, was plundered for 47 runs from 33 balls, including four sixes, as Jaiswal refused to allow the spinner to settle.
The opener reached his hundred from 119 balls, his 18th century in first-class cricket, with a six over midwicket, and went on to his 150 from 154 deliveries. By the tea break, India A had reached 269 for 2, the lead already past 190, and the contest effectively settled. Jaiswal finished unbeaten on 155 from 162 balls, an innings containing 15 fours and five sixes, played at a strike rate above 95.
Rathod played the supporting role first and the finisher's role second. Arriving at the crease at 35 for 2, he played second fiddle while Jaiswal attacked, reaching his half-century from 63 balls. He went into the tea break on 88 not out, and once the game restarted he collected the remaining runs to complete his century from 122 balls, striking nine fours.
The hundred was a significant contribution in its own right: Rathod had scored 44 not out and 66 in the opening match of the series, and his form has marked him out as a batter of growing stature in the domestic circuit. The unbroken stand of 247 came from just 245 balls, a measure of how thoroughly the pair controlled the final day.
For Jaiswal, the innings carried importance beyond the match result. Coming into the second innings, he had scored 17, 5 and 0 on the tour so far, had failed to reach a fifty on the Sri Lanka tour, and had been dismissed for a duck in his only Ranji Trophy match of the 2026-27 season, against Chandigarh, before joining India A in New Zealand.
The absence of a fifty in four outings had raised questions about the opener's form ahead of a two-Test series on which India's World Test Championship 2025-27 final hopes hinge. A century scored at better than a run a ball, against a home attack on its own pitches, answers those questions in the most direct way possible and ticks off another box before the senior series.
New Zealand A's attack, it should be noted, was depleted, missing pacer Fraser Sheat and left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox. Even allowing for that, the manner of Jaiswal's innings stood out: the early caution against the new ball, the acceleration through the middle session, and the refusal to retreat into a purely defensive shell once the draw was safe.
India A's first innings had also shown depth, with Jurel's century, Padikkal's 80 and Akash Deep's 68, while the bowling effort featured a five-wicket haul from Mukesh Kumar and four wickets from Siraj, two bowlers pushing for senior recognition.
The first unofficial Test of the series, played in Lincoln last week, had also ended in a draw, with the home side holding on at the end. The second match followed a similar pattern in its outcome but a different one in its story: where the first game was a survival exercise for the hosts, the second became a statement of batting dominance by the tourists on the final day.
The two sides will now meet in the third and final unofficial Test, scheduled to begin on November 7 at the Bert Sutcliffe Oval in Lincoln, where the senior aspirants on both sides will have one more chance to press their claims.
The broader significance of the draw lies in what it says about India's batting pipeline. Jaiswal, already an established international opener, has used the A tour to rediscover touch after a lean spell. Rathod, a Vidarbha batter, has used it to announce himself on foreign soil with a century compiled under pressure, after early wickets, with the match still in the balance.
Jurel's first-innings century as captain and Padikkal's 80 add to the picture of a batting group with depth. For the selectors watching ahead of the Test series, the final day at Hagley Oval offered exactly what such tours are designed to provide: evidence of temperament, not just talent, when a game and a reputation are on the line.
(Reporting based on ESPNcricinfo, Cricbuzz, SportsTak and Sports Now.)