Rishabh Pant scored a brilliant fifty after failing to make an impact in the first innings of the first round of the Duleep Trophy 2024 on Saturday. Rishabh and Sarafaraz Khan scored crucial innings after early setbacks for India B in their first match against India A at M Chinnaswamy Stadium.
India A's first innings collapsed on just 231 runs on Day 3 after Navdeep Saini and Mukesh Kumar took three wickets each for India B. Bowlers managed to dominate Day 3 with India B also struggling for the runs early in their second innings.
Akash Deep and Avesh Khan delivered early wickets to push India B on a back foot with three wickets for 22 inside eight overs. But Rishabh Pant and Sarafaraz Khan added 72 runs for the fourth wicket to put India B in a comfortable position for a big total.
Sarfaraz missed out on his fifty after scoring 46 runs off just 36 balls but Rishabh smashed a 34-ball fifty to make a successful return to red-ball cricket. Rishabh scored 61 runs off 47 balls before losing his wicket to Tanush Koitan. India B managed to take a fighting lead of 240 runs at the end of the day's play in Bengaluru.
Rishabh last played red-ball cricket in December 2022, before his unfortunate car accident that kept him sidelined for over a year. Rishabh returned to action in the IPL 2024 and was also part of India's T20 World Cup 2024-winning squad.
The 26-year-old left-handed batter is also expected to return to Test cricket when India host Bangladesh in two matches starting on September 19. He scored just seven runs in the first innings but displayed aggression with skills on Day 3 to prove his fitness and hunger for red-ball cricket.
