In the Duleep Trophy 2024, the India A team led by Shubman Gill had to face defeat. India B registered a thumping 76-run win against India A on Sunday. India B set a target of 275 runs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. India A’s second innings collapsed to 198 runs in 53 overs on the fourth and final day. KL Rahul and Akash Deep’s hard work went in vain. Rahul scored 57 runs in 121 balls with the help of 7 fours. At the same time, all-rounder Akash, after coming in at number nine, played an innings of 43 runs in 42 balls, which included three fours and four sixes.
Chasing the target, India A had a bad start. Opener Mayank Agarwal (3) returned to the pavilion in the second over. Riyan Parag contributed 31 runs and Gill contributed 21 runs. Rahul held one end for a long time but the wickets kept falling from the other end. Dhruv Jurel and Tanush Kotian could not open their account. India A lost 5 wickets for just 76 runs. Shivam Dubey and Kuldeep Yadav scored 14 runs each. Rahul lost his wicket in the 40th over. Akash was the last player to get out. Yash Dayal took three wickets, Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar took two wickets each.
Earlier, India B’s second innings collapsed at 184 runs. On Sunday, captain Abhimanyu Easwaran’s team added just 34 runs and lost four wickets. Wicketkeeper batsman Rishabh Pant scored 61 and Sarfaraz Khan scored 46 runs. Both of them made a good partnership and helped the team reach a challenging score. Both faced the bowlers bravely. Both added 72 runs in nine overs. Easwaran (4), Yashasvi Jaiwal (9) and Washington Sundar (9) could not reach the double digit mark while Mushir Khan was out on zero. Akash opened the innings and Khalil Ahmed took three wickets.
Akash took a total of 9 wickets in the match. He took four wickets in the first innings. India B had gained a strong lead of 90 runs on the basis of the first innings. In reply to India B’s 321, India A scored 231 runs in the first innings. Musheer Khan played a memorable innings for India B. After India B faltered, he scored 181 runs in 373 balls with the help of 15 fours and 5 sixes. Musheer made a record partnership of 205 runs with Navdeep Saini for the eighth wicket. Musheer was awarded the Player of the Match award.
