KL Rahul’s gumption, which helped him pile 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 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 a 51.

In the first session of the day, India B made 184 all out in their second essay to muster a handy overall lead of 274.

The India A chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, 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 and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.

Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former’s bat in just 18 balls.

But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag’s bat en route to stumper Rishabh Pant.

Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and 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 bowlers’ persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.

They took the lunch at a queasy 76 for four that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.

However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 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, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.

It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep (43, 42b, 3×4, 4×6) gave a few moments of fun with a cavalier innings.

But 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 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.

Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).

The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.

Navdeep Saini reminded of his presence among the fringe pacers with a quality new ball spell that helped India B to keep India A in check at 134 for two in the first innings, after the second day of their Duleep Trophy match in Bengaluru on Friday. India B needed their bowlers to carry on the excellent effort of Musheer Khan (181, 373b, 16×4, 5×6) that powered ‘B’ to 321 in their first innings. KL Rahul (23, 80 balls) and Riyan Parag (27, 49 balls) were at the crease at stumps, with India A in arrears by 187 runs.

Saini, who is out of favour since the 2021 away series against Australia, showed some spark to eke out the wickets of India A skipper Shubman Gill (25) and his opening partner Mayank Agarwal (36).

The right-arm quick broke the first-wicket alliance 57 between Gill and Agarwal at the stroke of tea to give his side the first breakthrough.

Gill, who crunched a couple of exquisite fours off left-arm seamer Yash Dayal, shouldered arms to an incoming delivery that crashed onto the stumps.

Agarwal, who is also on a comeback trail after going out of favour since the 2022 Pink Ball Test against Sri Lanka here, looked comfortable during his stay in the middle.

His cover drive off Saini was a lovely piece of timing, but the right-hander soon fell to the same bowler, jabbing a down-the-leg delivery to stumper Rishabh Pant.

Pant, who was tidy behind the stumps, made an acrobatic dive to his left to complete a wonderful catch to send back Agarwal.

If Saini, who is playing his first red-ball game since this January, can pick a few more wickets here, the Delhiite can add another page to his comeback chart that now includes appearances for India A sides against England Lions and South Africa A in December-January.

Rahul and Parag were put through the wringer by the pace triumvirate of Saini, Mukesh Kumar and Nitish Kumar Reddy on a pitch that still offered a good bit of assistance to the quicks.

Balls whooshing past the bat and nervy edges underlined the toughness of the passage.

Rahul needed 14 balls to get off the mark, and he was saved by a drop catch at second slip by Nitish off Mukesh when the batter was on three.

Parag, a natural shot-maker, too had to contain his instincts under the prevailing conditions but a glorious drive through the covers off Saini was a pointer to his timing.

Parag and Rahul, who looked far more comfortable as the innings progressed, have added 68 runs for the unbroken third wicket so far.

Musheer was all timing and confidence in the first session of the day as the Mumbai batter continued to pile runs in the company of Saini.

Musheer, who resumed from overnight 105, added 76 more runs to his individual score, following the template from the first day of him controlling a large chunk of strike.

Saini too gave him solid support, reaching his second First-Class fifty, as India B went through second successive session without losing a wicket, while adding 88 runs off 30 overs.

But Musheer’s 484-minute stay at the crease ended in the second over after lunch when he clanged Kuldeep Yadav to Parag in the deep.

It also signalled the end of their stunning 205-run partnership, the highest for the eighth wicket in Duleep Trophy history.

Their stand surpassed the 197 runs added for the eighth wicket by Abhishek Nayar and Ramesh Powar in 2010.

Once Musheer departed, India B innings folded quickly as pacer Akash Deep returned with a haul of four for 60.

Brief scores: India B 321 in 116 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 30, Musheer Khan 181, Navdeep Saini 56; Akash Deep 4/60) lead India A 134/2 in 35 overs (Mayank Agarwal 36, Riyan Parag 27, KL Rahul 23; Navdeep Saini 2/36) by 187 runs

India’s ‘prince’ Shubman Gill failed to make his Duleep Trophy outing count for the second successive innings. Gill, playing for India A against India B, couldn’t put a strong opening wicket stand with Mayank Agarwal, as he fell prey to Navdeep Saini‘s brilliance. Gill, thinking that the widish delivery from Saini is safe to be left alone, decided to not engage with the ball, and ended up seeing the ball shatter his stumps. Gill had a stunned look on his face as he looked to comprehend the mistake made.

Saini has been brilliant in the match, not just with the ball but also with the bat. He scored 56 runs off 144 balls, fording an important partnership with Musheer Khan to help India B put 321 runs on the board batting first.

Shubman Gill departs with a beauty of a delivery from Navdeep Saini pic.twitter.com/eflzDSBfD7

— psyf (@PsyfeR888) September 6, 2024

Earlier, India B’s batting first struggled as they lost the first seven wickets at the score of 94. Players like Yashasvi Jaiswal (30), Rishabh Pant (7), Sarfaraaz Khan (9), and Abhimanyu Easwaran (13) failed to make the mark against their opponents.

After the fall of seven quick wickets, Musheer and Navdeep controlled the damage and built an unbeaten partnership of 108 runs before the end of play on Day 1.

Musheer played an unbeaten knock of 105 runs off 227 balls which was laced with 10 fours and two maximums and on the other hand, Naveep scored unbeaten 29 runs in 74 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six.

For the Shubman Gill-led side, two wickets each were snapped by Khaleel Ahmed, Akash Deep, and Avesh Khan in their spells of 17, 18, and 16 overs where they conceded 39, 28, and 42 runs respectively. One wicket came through a runout.

With ANI Inputs

Seamer Mohammed Siraj will miss the Duleep Trophy’s first round games due to illness while veteran all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has been allowed an extended period of rest by the BCCI’s national selection committee, which announced a few changes to the participating squads on Tuesday. The first round of the Duleep Trophy, comprising two matches, will be held from September 5-8 with India A taking on India B at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru and India C facing off against India D at the Rural Development Trust Stadium A in Ananthapur.

Siraj, who was a part of India’s last away assignment in Sri Lanka, along with Umran Malik have both been ruled out of the first round games and have been replaced by Navdeep Saini and Gaurav Yadav respectively.

“Both Siraj and Malik are suffering from an illness and are not expected to be fit in time for their Duleep Trophy fixtures,” the BCCI informed in a release.

“All-rounder Ravindra Jadeja has also been released from the Team B squad,” the board added.

Jadeja was last seen in action in the T20 World Cup final in June against South Africa and was rested from the ODI series in Sri Lanka.

The 32-year-old Yadav, who hails from Madhya Pradesh, took 41 wickets in seven matches for Pondicherry in the last season of Ranji Trophy to finish as the second highest wicket-taker in the country’s premier domestic competition.

Revised squads:

India A: Shubman Gill (c), Mayank Agarwal, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel (wk), KL Rahul, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Kuldeep Yadav, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Vidwath Kaverappa, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat.

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran (c), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant (wk), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy*, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (wk).

India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (wk), Suryakumar Yadav, B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (wk), Sandeep Warrier.

India D: Shreyas lyer (c), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ishan Kishan (wk), Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (wk), Saurabh Kumar.

Newly-appointed India head coach Gautam Gambhir has the ability to derive the best out of players when the chips are down, and his affinity to take up challenges head on can make winning a habit for the national team, feels his childhood coach Sanjay Bharadwaj. Gambhir, the World Cup-winning former opener, was given the reins of the India team on Tuesday. He replaced Rahul Dravid, whose tenure ended with the country’s title win in the T20 World Cup in Barbados last month.

“Gautam has the quality to bring the best out of his players. The job of a top coach is precisely that. Gauti knows his players well and can bring the best out of them, using them effectively.

“I feel, as a coach, he has the capability to take India to the pinnacle. He can do the job honestly without any bias and bring the best to Indian cricket. The (ODI) World Cup title which has eluded us for the last 13 years would now start coming,” Bhardwaj told PTI Videos on Wednesday.

Bharadwaj, who has also produced India cricketers such as Amit Mishra, Unmukt Chand and Nitish Rana besides several Ranji players from Delhi, added that Gambhir has the ability to take up any challenge and succeed in his endeavour.

“He always played with a challenge. Since he was 10, he had the winner’s mentality. He always played to win. He never thought that he could lose a match. He was never in doubt.

“Gauti always had a sharp and astute observation power. Gautam has the ability to take up any challenge and then succeed in it,” the veteran coach said about Gambhir, who played a crucial role in India lifting the ODI World Cup in 2011 under Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Bharadwaj added that Gambhir had predicted Rohit Sharma‘s resurgence when the India captain was going through a lean patch in his early days.

“He has played with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in the past. Long back, he had once given his ‘Man of the Match’ to Virat. That shows his golden heart. He told me long back that Rohit Sharma will become a great player one day. This was when Rohit was not among the runs and needed some encouragement. His observation about Rohit proved accurate,” he said.

Bharadwaj added that Gambhir would always stick to his decision if he feels it is right.

“If Gautam ever feels that something is right for the team, he will be firm on that decision. Gautam plays to win. He knows what to do and focusses on having a set team combination. He doesn’t believe in favouritism; the only thing that is his favourite is cricket.”

Bharadwaj said Gambhir went by instincts and backed Kuldeep Yadav and Navdeep Saini.

“He could pick players like Kuldeep Yadav and Navdeep Saini (in the India team setup). They are his product. He also followed his instincts on West Indian all-rounder Sunil Narine (during IPL 2024). His observation and cricketing acumen were always outstanding,” he added.

Gambhir has been a part of two successful World Cup campaigns — in T20 World Cup in 2007 and in ODI World Cup in 2011 –, and Bharadwaj’s advice to his ward is, “be honest in your approach”.

“With his batting, he won two World Cups for India in 2007 and 2011. As a player, you helped India win two World Cups, then propelled KKR to three IPL titles. You have a habit of taking up challenges and conquering them; be honest in your approach and repay the country’s faith in you,” he said.