Kolkata: Two cricket shots turned the second day of the Duleep Trophy into yet another account of what could have been. A miscued hoick at Anantapur came so unexpectedly that even Shreyas Iyer looked visibly upset that he hadn’t middled it. And he was middling everything. So was Shubman Gill at Bengaluru—on the back foot or the front, leaning in or rocking back, till he decided to leave a delivery from Navdeep Saini.
Both dismissals came at crucial junctures of the Duleep Trophy. With India C gaining a slender four-run lead at Anantapur, the onus was on Iyer to set the ball rolling. And he did that too. Standing tall, hitting on the up with a huge backlift, driving, cutting, and punching anything that was either overpitched or short, Iyer scored 42 out of his 54 runs in fours and sixes. Devdutt Padikkal played a counterattacking fifty as well but when in full flow, Iyer can be hard to look away from.
The counterpunching, game-shifting nature of Iyer’s innings was significant given this match had already turned out to be a damp squib by the first day. India C were probably wrangling a little sense of control as India D slipped to 40/2 but Iyer hit four boundaries and a six in the first 12 balls he faced to quickly change the complexion of the game. Barely 10 overs in and hogging almost all the strike, Iyer threw open the game with his fifty while allowing Padikkal to ease his way into the game as India D ended the day 202 runs ahead.
Left-arm spinner Manav Suthar turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief for India C, returning 5/30, including the scalps of Padikkal and Ricky Bhui, who impressed with a 91-ball 44. Earlier in the day, India C were bowled out for 168 after resuming their first innings on 91/4, with Baba Indrajith ending up as the highest scorer with 72 off 149 balls. Fast bowler Harshit Rana took 4/33 and Axar Patel 2/46.
{{/usCountry}}Left-arm spinner Manav Suthar turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief for India C, returning 5/30, including the scalps of Padikkal and Ricky Bhui, who impressed with a 91-ball 44. Earlier in the day, India C were bowled out for 168 after resuming their first innings on 91/4, with Baba Indrajith ending up as the highest scorer with 72 off 149 balls. Fast bowler Harshit Rana took 4/33 and Axar Patel 2/46.
{{/usCountry}}Till Saini produced that seaming gem in Bengaluru, nothing seemed to deter Gill from authoring a big innings. Calm and measured at first, Gill finally showed his intent by skipping down the pitch and punching Mukesh Kumar for a boundary. Two balls later, Gill drove him through the covers for another four and the confidence couldn’t have looked any better. Saini broke through with a ball that Gill would have easily batted out on any other day. But he chose to shoulder arms instead.
It was the highlight of Saini’s new-ball spell that also fetched Mayank Agarwal’s wicket as India India A ended the second day on 134/2 after Musheer Khan (181) built on the hundred to guide India B to an impressive 321. With unwavering support from Saini, Musheer added 76 more runs to his individual score as their team ended up playing out two sessions without losing a wicket. In the process, they added 205 runs—the highest for the eighth wicket in Duleep Trophy history, breaking the record of 197 runs, stitched by Abhishek Nayar and Ramesh Powar in 2010.