Despite KL Rahul’s gritty fifty, India A could manage to get through as a solid bowling effort led by Yash Dayal powered India B to a 76-run victory on the fourth and final day of their Duleep Trophy game on Sunday. While chasing down a total of 275, the batters of India A failed to absorb the pressure and were restricted to just 198 in their second innings. Yash Dayal led the pace attack and ended up registering the figures of 3/50, and also got full support from Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41). Rahul’s top score of 51 went in vain as India A struggled to put up stands, perishing to India B’s bowling.
Previously, India B resumed the second innings at 150/6 and were bowled out for 184, giving India A a target of 275. Akash Deep after spending a rough patch made a brilliant comeback and recorded a five-wicket haul (5/56) .
The batters of India A started chasing the total on a bad note as opener Mayank Agarwal got out in just the second over. Riyan Parag on the other hand played some attacking shots, smashing two sixes against Mukesh Kumar but then he failed to capitalize as he was dismissed for 31 from 18 balls.
Yet another star batter, Shubman Gill too found it difficult to score runs and was sent to the pavilion for just 21 runs. The likes of Dhruv Jurel and Shivam Dube also failed to make an impact leaving their team reeling at 76/4 by lunch and later 99/6. It was solely KL Rahul who showed tremendous determination and ended up playing a knock of 51 off 121 balls. He also stitched a 42-run stand with Kuldeep Yadav for the seventh wicket. Moments after getting his fifty, Rahul got out to Mukesh Kumar. Pacer Akash Deep did play some aggressive shots and ended up making 43 off 42 balls before his team lost the game.