The third and final unofficial Test between India A and South Africa A, beginning at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein on Monday, will give the fringe players one more opportunity to make their case for selection ahead of Team India’s South Africa tour later this month.

Hanuma Vihari, who was dropped for the ongoing home series versus New Zealand series at home, finds another chance to send a message to the national selectors before they get down to finalise the squad for the three-Test series versus South Africa.

Importantly for Vihari, he has so far delivered with knocks that have been vital to India A, particularly in the previous four-day contest where he hit 54 and an unbeaten 72. Both those knocks came at critical phases of the game.

Vihari also stitched together a 133-run third-wicket partnership with Abhimanyu Easwaran. The Bengal batsman, scoring a century too on this tour, has looked to be in fine rhythm. He aggregates 158 on this tour with an impressive average of 52.67.

Among the bowlers, Ishan Porel and Navdeep Saini tried really hard to make an impact in the previous game. Both the young quicks were able to get wickets at crucial junctures. Bengal pacer Porel impressed, maintaining a healthy economy rate through the game.