It was the bowlers' day in the Duleep Trophy in both matches in Bengaluru and Ananthapur on wickets that assisted seam, swing and spin, basically, the bowlers. In Ananthapur, 14 wickets have already fallen but Bengaluru offered a much more competitive wicket, however, India B led by Abhimanyu Easwaran, despite a good start, fell away with the middle order not chipping in with much.
Sarfaraz Khan, Rishabh Pant, Nitish Reddy and Washington Sundar all fell within a span of seven overs with Musheer Khan being the only one holding the fort. Pant, who was returning to the red-ball fold after more than two years, fell cheaply for just seven runs with Shubman Gill, India A captain holding on to a brilliant diving catch at mid-off. Akash Deep bowled on length on off and middle. Pant wanted to go across and hit towards the deep mid-wicket, however, he mistimed the lofted shot.
Gill at mid-off had to run back while keeping his eyes on the ball and eventually dived to reach and eventually gobbled up. Gill hurt his shoulder a bit in the process but that was a brilliant take from India A skipper as he had to judge the speed of the ball while running back, which is always difficult.
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On the very next ball, Akash Deep removed Nitish Reddy with a corker of a delivery on top of the off-stump and India B had lost half their side.
India B lost a couple of more wickets before Musheer Khan stitched an unbeaten 80-run stand with Navdeep Saini to hold off India A from getting further wickets. Musheer is getting closer to his hundred and has continued to impress one and all.
In the other match, India D were bowled for 164 with India C losing four wickets for less than 50.
