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On day one of the first unofficial Test match at the St Lawrence Ground in Canterbury, Karun Nair scored a fifty for India A against England Lions, reaching the milestone in 85 balls.

The right-handed batter, who is the part of the Indian cricket team for the five-match Test series against England, started the tour in style with an impressive innings, to stake a claim at a spot in the playing XI for the first Test next month at Headingley in Leeds.

For the unversed, England Lions captain James Rew won the toss and decided to bowl first, following which his decision paid early dividends as India captain Abhimanyu Easwaran was trapped in front of the stumps by Josh Hull after scoring eight runs in 17 balls with two fours. It led to the arrival of Karun Nair at the crease, who played cautiously in the beginning of his innings alongside his partner Yashasvi Jaiswal at the other end.

Both these batters shared a 39-run stand for the second wicket before Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had scored 24 runs in 55 balls with three fours and one six, was caught behind on the bowling of Eddie Jack. After that, Sarfaraz Khan joined Karun Nair in the middle, and these two have taken India A past the hundred mark before the latter reached his first fifty on England tour.

Below are the playing XIs of England Lions and India A for the 1st Unofficial Test match:

England Lions: Tom Haines, Ben McKinney, Emilio Gay, Max Holden, James Rew(c/wk), Dan Mousley, Rehan Ahmed, Zaman Akhter, Eddie Jack, Josh Hull, Ajeet Singh Dale

India A: Abhimanyu Easwaran(c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Karun Nair, Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel(wk), Nitish Kumar Reddy, Shardul Thakur, Harsh Dubey, Anshul Kamboj, Harshit Rana, Mukesh Kumar