Duleep Trophy | Resillient Musheer ton keeps India B alive on spicy Bengaluru deck

Gantavya Adukia

ByGantavya Adukia, SportsCafe Editor

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India B fought back from a precarious position to end Day 1 of the Duleep Trophy opener against India A at 202/7 on a green Chinnaswamy deck. Musheer Khan's patient ton formed the heart of an unbeaten 108-run stand with Navdeep Saini that kept a threatening pace attack at bay for the last 35 overs.

Brief score: IND B 202/7 [Musheer 105*, Jaiswal 30; Akash 2/28] lead IND A by 202 runs at Stumps on Day 1

Shubman Gill won the toss on Thursday morning and unsurprisingly chose to bowl first on a lush green surface with plenty in it for the seamers. New ball operators Khaleel Ahmed and Akash Deep managed to extract significant seam movement and variable bounce as a result but Yashasvi Jaiswalcounteracted the threat with his flair while Abhimanyu Easwaran stood steadfast at the other end. However, the latter eventually uncharacteristically flayed his bat at a wide one from Avesh to nick behind and end a 33-run stand before Yashasvi repeated the mistake a few overs as the team headed into Lunch at 65/2.

Sarfaraz Khan quickly ceded momentum to India A upon resumption by being trapped in front for cheap before Rishabh Pant mistimed a heave and holed out at mid-on to a diving Gill effort. Akash made it two wickets in as many balls by sending Nitish Kumar's off-stump cartwheeling with a jaffa and India B suddenly found themselves reeling at 80/5. Fortune further deserted the batting side as Washington Sundar was run-out at the non-striker's end off Musheer's straight drive, who had been patiently watching the collapse all along. Once Sa Kishore departed to make the score 94/7, the onus fell on the 19-year-old's shoulder to tag the tail along with a rescuing knock. The youngster delivered with aplomb, biding his time and punishing the poor deliveries whenever necessary to guide the team to Tea at 124/7.

In the final session, Navdeep Saini held fort at one end with a stout 74-ball effort for 29 and Musheer kept accumulating at the other end. Ultimately, a frustrated bowling attack had to call it a day with nothing to show in the final session while Musheer brought up a third first-class ton to remain unbeaten on 105 at Stumps with the match hanging in the balance.

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