Duleep Trophy: Skipper Shubman Gill handed a defeat by India B on his Birthday

Birthday turned subdued for Shubman Gill as the skipper was handed a defeat by Abhimanyu Easwaran-led team on Sunday. India B secured a decisive victory with a strong bowling performance that dismissed India A for 198 in their chase of 275. On the final day of their Duleep Trophy, India A struggled under the bowling pressure as the team collapsed within just two sessions of play. The only notable batting performance for India A came from KL Rahul who scored a resilient 57 off 121 but in vain as the next batters in line departed cheaply against the pace attack led by Yash Dayal, Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar.

Shubman Gill falls to Navdeep Saini twice as KL Rahul registers a fruitless half-century in Duleep Trophy opener

Prior to their batting effort, India A’s bowlers had managed to dismiss the tailenders quickly. Seamer Akash Deep led the charge with a five-wicket haul, finishing the match with nine wickets. He took three of the four wickets to fall in the first session, starting by getting left-hander R Sai Kishore to edge a delivery behind. Akash then bowled a superb delivery to bowl out Washington Sundar. Navdeep Saini followed in as he top-edged a catch to wicket-keeper Dhruv Jurel, who took his seventh catch of the innings. With this catch, Jurel leveled with MS Dhoni as the player to take most catches in a Duleep Trophy innings. Khaleel Ahmed, another pacer, concluded the innings by dismissing Yash Dayal, setting a target of 275 for India A to chase in 76 overs.

India A’s chase began poorly as Mayank Agarwal edged Dayal in the second over, with Nitish Reddy taking the catch. However, Riyan Parag made a bold attempt to turn the game with an aggressive approach. Parag hit three sixes and scored 31 off 18 balls before he was dismissed by Dayal. Shubman Gill, who had been dropped by Nitish off Navdeep Saini, and Rahul tried to stabilize the innings. However, Gill, for a second time in the match fell to Navdeep Saini. The skipper who turned 25 on Sunday, in an apparent impatience approach was caught behind off a wide delivery. Dhruv Jurel followed with a duck, caught by Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully. At 76/4, India A’s chase faltered as they approached the lunch break, and the situation worsened when Tanush Kotian was caught behind off the first ball after the break, giving Mukesh Kumar his first wicket.

India B continued to capitalize on their advantage presented by the pacers. Nitish Reddy struck in his first over, getting Shivam Dube caught at short cover off a leading edge. Rahul fought valiantly, reaching a fighting half-century while Kuldeep Yadav supported him from the other end. However, after surviving 17 overs together, Rahul edged a slower delivery from Mukesh to be caught, bringing India B closer to victory. Kuldeep, who had batted for 51 balls, was the next to go, caught at cover. Despite Akash’s late hitting, India B dismissed Avesh Khan with a short ball, caught by Rishabh Pant, who took his fifth catch of the innings, before running out Akash to seal the win.