India B’s bowlers were relentless in the second innings as they skittled out India A for 198 to win their opening Duleep Trophy fixture by 76 runs in Bengaluru. KL Rahul held India A’s innings together for a while before falling for a well-made 121-ball 57.
In pursuit of a sizeable target of 275, India A needed a good start. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t work out that way. Mayank Agarwal was the first one to be dismissed, with Nitish Kumar Reddy grabbing a superb catch in the slip cordon. Yash Dayal bagged that scalp. Shubman Gill and Riyan Parag, in particular, then played with a sense of adventure. Parag essayed a couple of fine pulls and even charged down the deck to loft Mukesh Kumar into the stands.
Dayal, however, continued to make an impression, as he induced Parag to edge one behind with a delivery that held its line from round the wicket. Gill, who was dropped by Nitish, then got out to Navdeep Saini, edging one to Rishabh Pant. Dhruv Jurel, Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian couldn’t survive for long as India A slid further to 99 for 6.
Kuldeep Yadav and Rahul then resisted for close to 17 overs. Rahul put on a fine show in terms of handling seam movement via grass and indentations. He was largely covering his off-stump and also playing late against the seaming ball. But, against the run of play, he tried to cut and was dislodged by Mukesh. Akash Deep then played some fine shots, but it was too little too late. He was the last man to be dismissed on the back of a direct-hit from Musheer Khan.
Earlier, Akash had also bowled with purpose and skill to bag a five-for. He bagged nine wickets for the match. The crux of his bowling was how consistently he hit the seam to get some movement off the deck. On the other hand, India A lost their last five wickets for just 34 runs.
In the eventual analysis, the biggest difference between the two sides was Musheer’s 181 and his game-breaking partnership with Saini in the first innings. He was adjudged the Player of the Match.
Brief scores: India B 321 (Musheer Khan 181, Navdeep Saini 56; Akash Deep 4/60, Khaleel Ahmed 2/54) and 184 (Rishabh Pant 61, Sarfaraz Khan 46; Akash Deep 5/56) beat India A 231 (KL Rahul 37, Mayank Agarwal 36; Navdeep Saini 3/60, Mukesh Kumar 3/62) and 198 (KL Rahul 57; Yash Dayal 3/50, Navdeep Saini 2-41) by 76 runs.