Duleep Trophy: Pacers shine as India B beat India A by 76 runs

BENGALURU: KL Rahul’s gumption, which helped him accumulate a patient fifty, found no resonance among his colleagues as India B pacers, led by Yash Dayal, pushed India A to a 76-run defeat on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy match here on Sunday. Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack. Rahul top-scored for 'A' with 51.

In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay, managing to build a handy overall lead of 274. India A's chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip. That brought Riyan Parag to the middle, and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.



Parag took on the bowlers, with pacer Mukesh bearing the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes. The second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region. Parag added 48 runs for the second wicket with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slip off Mukesh on 16.

Thirty-one came off Parag's bat in just 18 balls. But the approach was tough to sustain, given the assistance the bowlers were getting. Soon, a massive hoick off Dayal took an edge from Parag's bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.

Gill (21) departed soon after, falling to Saini for the second time in the match. On this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant. Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of the bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.

India A took lunch at a queasy 76 for four, which soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissals of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch break. However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes, facing 121 balls, and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable. The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on-drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.

But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings. This came soon after Rahul reached his fifty with a single off Saini. It effectively signalled the end of the road for India A, though Akash Deep (43 off 42 balls, 3x4, 4x6) provided a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.

Beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of 'when' more than 'if'. Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150 for six, India B could only add 34 more runs before getting bundled out. Pacer Akash Deep, whom Sarfaraz Khan had carted around for five consecutive fours the previous day, found his rhythm to claim the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini, completing a five-wicket haul (5/56).

This spell will keep his name in contention when the selectors meet to pick the squad for the upcoming two-match Test series against Bangladesh..