India A needed one more wicket in Lincoln, but couldn’t get it. New Zealand A finished the first unofficial Test on 187/9 after 65 overs, and the match was drawn when the umpires’ light meter called a halt to proceedings. Curtis Heaphy was unbeaten on 90 off 187 balls and with Jayden Lennox, he saw off the last nine and a half overs. Auqib Nabi had taken three for 28 early on, leaving the hosts 13/3.

Set a target of 313, New Zealand’s Rhys Mariu survived a first-ball LBW appeal as the umpire perhaps thought it would have swung down the legside, such was the prodigious swing on it. In his next over, Auqib got the ball to move in sharply from outside off again, this time off the pitch, to breach the defences of the hapless Mariu.

Auqib struck again before the over was out, with another nipbacker to trap Tim Robinson in front of leg stump. In his next over, the fifth of the innings and his third, Auqib went round the stumps to slant a length delivery back into left-hander Matthew Boyle.…