Shreyas Iyer came out to bat wearing sunglasses on the second day of the Duleep Trophy for India D and ended up bagging a seven-ball duck. But by the end of the day, his fortunes had changed not with the bat but with the ball, as he had picked a wicket of his counterpart, India A skipper Mayank Agarwal to bring some joy to his team.
After taking a massive lead of 107 runs in the first innings, India A had started in a solid fashion courtesy of their openers Mayank and Pratham Singh. They had added 115 runs for the first wicket with both batters going past the 50-run mark stretching the lead to 222 runs. For the last over of the day, Iyer introduced himself into the attack with nothing working for him and much to everyone's surprise, Agarwal got out on the very first ball.
He just bowled a gentle off-break to the India A skipper and the batsman just pushed the ball back to him to get out caught and bowled. Iyer was quick enough to react and grab the chance before running away celebrating the surprise wicket. It was a good end to the day for the India D captain after he bagged a duck in the first session of the day.
As far as the match is concerned, India D are on the ropes at the moment following their poor effort with the bat in the first innings. In reply to India A's 290, they were skittled for just 183 runs as only four of their batters could cross the double-digit mark. Devdutt Padikkal was the star for them scoring 92 runs off 124 balls with 15 fours but he got no support from the other end with number nine batter Harshit Rana being the second-highest-scorer with 31.
India D bowlers will have to pick quick wickets on the third morning and restrict the opposition's lead to around 300 runs before hoping to chase it down later.
