Young Essex seamers continued to show England’s Under-19s the way ahead of their forthcoming series against India, as rain affected the second and final day of the two teams’ warm-up matches.
Max Holden’s England team were unable to resume their game against the Unicorns, because the heavy morning rain had left one of the run-ups saturated.
But the conditions were playable by early afternoon on the other cricket pitch at Loughborough University, allowing the Invitational XI compiled by the England Under-19 selectors to complete a notable victory over the Indian tourists.
Jack Plom had done the damage on the first day, taking six for 25 as India were reduced to 87 for eight and forced to declare their first innings, under the rules agreed before the match.
After England had extended their reply to 267 for six, Plom’s Essex team-mate Ben Allison seized centre stage.
He took three of the first five wickets in a probing spell, and also claimed a cool running catch to give Durham spinner Liam Trevaskis one of his two wickets.
With Worcestershire seamer Adam Finch striking the first blow with the new ball, and one wicket each for Glamorgan’s Prem Sisodiya and Nottinghamshire’s Liam Patterson-White – both left-arm spinners – India struggled to 121 for eight.
That meant they were all out again, and the Invitational XI claimed victory by an innings and 59 runs.
Earlier there had been handy second-day contributions with the bat from Patterson-White (18 not out, including a cleanly-struck six), Leicestershire wicketkeeper Harry Swindells (25 not out) and captain Fin Trenouth (46).
Three members of the Invitational XI – Patterson-White, Swindells and Surrey batsman Ryan Patel – will now rejoin the England squad as they complete their preparations for the first of two four-day games against India, which starts at Queen’s Park in Chesterfield on Sunday.
Plom and Trevaskis have been selected for the five-match Royal London One-Day Series against India which starts in Cardiff on August 7, with the second match in Canterbury two days later being shown live on Sky Sports.