The under-pressure Shreyas Iyer‘s dismal run continued but strong performances from the other frontline batters, including Sanju Samson, guided India D to 306 for five on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy match against India B in Anantapur on Thursday. Iyer, aiming to make a comeback to India’s Test squad, fell for a second successive duck in the ongoing tournament. However, Devdutt Padikkal (50), Srikar Bharat (52), RickyBhui (56) and Samson (89 not out) smashed half-centuries as India D batters produced a solid show.

At stumps, Samson and Saransh Jain (26) were at the crease. For India B, leg-spinner Rahul Chahar (3/60) was the standout bowler, claiming three wickets. Mukesh Kumar (1/37) and Navdeep Saini (1/51) picked up a wicket each after India B won the toss and elected to field first at the Rural Development Trust Stadium.

Opening the innings, Padikkal and Bharat put together a solid 105-run partnership. However, Saini provided the breakthrough by removing Padikkal, followed by Mukesh dismissing Bharat, with both catches being taken by wicketkeeper Narayan Jagadeesan.

After their departure, Nishant Sindhu managed just 19 before getting out, and skipper Iyer’s dismissal by Chahar left India D at 175 for four, halting their momentum.

Bhui then took charge, adding 41 runs with Samson to take the team past 200. But Chahar struck again, removing Bhui as India D were reduced to 216 for five.

But Samson kept going, blasting 10 fours and three sixes during his 83-ball innings to keep India D on track.

Samson added an unbeaten 90 runs with Jain.

It was another disappointing outing for Iyer, who walked in with India D well-placed at 172/3 but failed to capitalise on the opportunity.

Iyer has so far managed just 104 runs in five innings (9, 54, 0, 41, 0), averaging a modest 20.80 in the tournament.

Having been left out of the squad for the first Test against Bangladesh, Iyer’s chances of being considered for the upcoming series in Australia, or the home series against New Zealand appear slim.

Brief Scores: India D: 306 for five in 77 overs (Sanju Samson 89 not out, Devdutt Padikkal 50, Srikar Bharat 52, Ricky Bhui 56; Rahul Chahar 3/60) vs India B.

Rawat’s rearguard hundred rescues India A

Shashwat Rawat led India A’s dramatic recovery with an unbeaten 122 to steer them to 224 for seven on day one of the Duleep Trophy tie against India C here on Thursday.

The left-handed batter, who plays for Baroda in domestic cricket, got support only from Shams Mulani (44 off 76) after India A were reduced to 36 for five in the 20th over.

Last match’s centurion Pratham Singh, captain Mayank Agarwal, Tilak Varma and Riyan Parag all fell in single digits. Pacer Anshul Kamboj, who took eight wickets in an innings last week, was again the standout bowler for India C.

It was a knock to remember for Rawat who collected 15 fours in his unbeaten 235-ball effort. The elegant southpaw played an array of delightful shots through his epic innings including straight drives, cover drives and even reverse sweeps off the spinners.

He shared a much-needed 87-run stand with bowling all-rounder Mulani who once again came to the team’s rescue with the bat following a match-winning effort in the previous game.

India C, who lead the Duleep Trophy standings with nine points, will be aiming to bowl out India A at the earliest on day two.

India A skipper Agarwal has not had a tournament to remember and his lean run was extended on Thursday. The same goes for Riyan Parag who has not been able to spend time in the middle despite promising a lot.

Brief scores: 224/7 in 77 overs (Shashwat Rawat 122 batting, Shams Mulani 44; Anshul Kamboj 3/40, Vijaykumar Vyshak 2/33).

The likes of Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag and Rinku Singh will get another opportunity to enhance their red-ball credentials when the final round of Duleep Trophy matches begin in Anantapur on Thursday. No knockout games are scheduled for the season opening event and the team with maximum points will lift the trophy. With nine points from two games, India C sit at the top of the points table, followed by India B (7), India A (6) and India D (0).

Table leaders India C, captained by Ruturaj Gaikwad, will take on Mayank Agarwal led India A, while Abhimanyu Easwaran led India B will face India D, whose captain is under-pressure Iyer.

After being ignored for the Bangladesh series, Iyer had a point to prove but he has not been able to lead from the front thus far in the competition. With his team yet to earn a point in the tournament, he will be fired up to put an inspiring performance.

The performance of India D batter Samson and pacer Arshdeep Singh will also be tracked by the selectors. In the India B camp, Rinku will be aiming to get big runs after low returns in the previous game.

In the India A versus India C contest, the selectors will be expecting more runs from Agarwal, Parag and Sai Sudharsan. Parag has batted confidently thus far but needs to stay longer in the middle.

Pacer Prasidh Krishna, making a comeback from injury in the previous round, would be looking to log in a significant number of overs while Shams Mulani will be fancying another match-winning effort in the prevailing conditions. Ishan Kishan, who made a memorable return to red ball cricket by scoring a hundred for India C, will need another epic knock to garner more attention from the selectors.

India A squad: Mayank Agarwal (C), Riyan Parag, Tilak Varma, Shivam Dube, Tanush Kotian, Prasidh Krishna, Khaleel Ahmed, Avesh Khan, Kumar Kushagra, Shaswat Rawat, Pratham Singh, Akshay Wadkar, SK Rasheed, Shams Mulani, Aaqib Khan.

India B squad: Abhimanyu Easwaran (C), Musheer Khan, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Mukesh Kumar, Rahul Chahar, R Sai Kishore, Mohit Awasthi, N Jagadeesan (WK), Suyash Prabhudessai, Rinku Singh, Himanshu Mantri (WK).

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

India D squad: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson (WK), Nishant Sindhu, Vidwath Kaverappa. 

Ishan Kishan shared his pics on Instagram© instagram

India B opener Abhimanyu Easwaran continued to bat confidently as he scored a defiant century to guide his team to 309 for 7 against India C, which still looked in control to enforce a follow-on in their Duleep Trophy match on Saturday. Despite Easwaran’s unbeaten 143, India B trail India C by 216 runs and require 66 more runs to avoid a follow-on with just three wickets in hand. India C had scored a mammoth 525 in their first innings with Ishan Kishan scoring a century. The Day 3 of the tie belonged to the India B skipper, who scored a patient 262-ball 143 amid a procession of wickets with India C pacer Anshul Kamboj’s five-wicket haul (5/66 in 23.5 overs) bringing Easwaran’s team on its knees.

Undaunted by the fall of wickets at the other end, Bengal batter Easwaran kept frustrating the India C bowlers, though he still has work to do on Sunday to avoid a follow-on.

Commencing the day at 124 for no loss with Easwaran (overnight 51 not out) and Narayan Jagadeesan (overnight 67 not out) holding fort, India B were rattled quite early when Kamboj struck in only the fourth over of the morning session.

The 23-year-old Haryana pacer, who had played a few matches for Mumbai Indians in the IPL last season, got rid of the dangerous Jagadeesan who added just three runs to his personal score, getting the Tamil Nadu batter caught by wicket-keeper Abhishek Porel for 70, thus breaking the 129-run partnership.

Kamboj then had brothers Musheer and Sarfaraz Khan cheaply for 1 and 16 runs respectively before accounting for hard-hitter Rinku Singh (6) and Nithis Kumar Reddy (2) to completely destabilise India B.

At 194 for 5, things looked bleak for Easwaran’s side, but the skipper took it upon himself to shore up his side amid some hostile bowling by Kamboj. He stitched together a 43-run partnership with Washington Sundar (13) and then a 46-run stand with Sai Kishore (21) to repair the damage.

At stumps, Rahul Chahar (18 not out) was giving Easwaran company but with just three wickets left, it could be a difficult task for India B to avoid a follow-on.

India C skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad could even decide against enforcing a follow-on, given tomorrow is the last day of the contest and they are assured of three vital points on the basis of first innings lead.

However, if Gaikwad enforces the follow-on and wins the match, his team will earn six points.

India B vs India C Day 3 LIVE Score, Duleep Trophy 2024© X (Twitter)

File photo of Narayan Jagadeesan.© X (formerly Twitter)

The second round of the Duleep Trophy 2024 got underway on Thursday in Anantpur, with India A and India B taking on India C and India D, respectively. Last week, India B thumped India A in Bengaluru, while India C edged out India D in Anantpur. Majority of the players, who were selected for the 1st Test against Bangladesh, including Rishabh Pant, K L Rahul and Shubman Gill, were rested for the second round of Duleep Trophy. Initially, BCCI’s release announcing the teams for the second round of the Duleep Trophy matches, did not have the wicketkeeper-batter’s name. 

However, on Thursday, Ishan Kishan came on to bat for India C at No. 4 position. Kishan, who lost his central contract earlier this year, scored 111 off 126 balls with the help of 14 fours and three sixes.

Unfortunately for fans, the match was neither televised nor streamed by the BCCI. On the other hand, there was proper coverage for the match between India A and India D.

As a result, fans were not able to witness Kishan taking the India B bowlers to cleaners. Due to the blackout, fans slammed the BCCI for not televising or streaming the India B vs India C match.

Here’s how Internet reacted:

It’s genuinely a shame that the richest cricket board can’t even telecast two domestic games at the same time. After all the hype the Duleep Trophy got, it’s absurd to think that you can only watch one of the two games.

— Yash (@CSKYash_) September 12, 2024

Disappointed from BCCI. Only two games and you cannot even stream them together.

— Kaushik Kashyap (@CricKaushik_) September 12, 2024

– Not even a single ball bowled in Afghanistan vs New Zealand test match in 4 days

– No live telecast of India B vs India C

– No availability of drs in India B vs India C match

This is the situation of the richest cricket board BCCI #ShameonBCCI #DuleepTrophy

— Aryan Bansal (@aryan_cskian) September 12, 2024

Duleep trophy ka telecast 1 hi mtch tk tha kya…..ye domestic ko utha rhe ho….mtch v boring wala dikha rhe ho…wahn isan khelra wo dikao#IshanKishan

— (@spneerj) September 12, 2024

#BCCI IS A SHAME….!!!!!!!

1. They can’t even arrange a Test match at Greater Noida, not a single ball has been bowled yet .

2. They can’t even telecast two simultaneous #DuleepTrophy

matches , despite making such hype .

Worst Cricket Board.#RuturajGaikwad #Cricket #Test pic.twitter.com/9cMzhWbS9O

— Pratyush Halder (@pratyush_no7) September 12, 2024

Meanwhile, Kishan had missed the first round match due to an injury. He was initially part of the India D squad, before being replaced by Sanju Samson.

Kishan had garnered negative publicity after he returned midway from India’s Tour of South Africa due to personal reasons late last year. Since then, he has not been considered for the national team though he is one of most aggressive options as wicketkeeper-batter in the country. 

Earlier, it was reported that his perceived reluctance to feature in domestic cricket was a likely reason behind him being ignored for international series. However, when he was named for the Duleep Trophy first round of matches, it was seen as a positive step.

Ishan Kishan marked his First-Class return after well over a year with a wonderful hundred, the backbone of India C’s day one total of 357 for five against India B in the Duleep Trophy match in Anantpur on Thursday. Kishan’s 111 (126b, 14×4, 3×6) lifted India C from a slightly wobbly 97 two after they lost Rajat Patidar (40) and B Sai Sudharsan (43) in quick succession. The innings also underlined the fitness of the 26-year-old, who was originally in India D squad, as he missed the first round of Duleep Trophy with a groin injury.

Sanju Samson was drafted in as Kishan’s replacement in India D squad, necessitating the redrafting of the former into India C.

Cutting back to the match, India C’s situation was compounded by skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad’s return to the hut with an ankle niggle after facing just two balls.

However, any major concern over Gaikwad’s fitness was allayed when he came out to bat after Kishan’s dismissal, making an unbeaten 46 (50b, 7×4, 2×6) to guard the crease along with Manav Suthar (8 batting).

But the day belonged to Kishan, who added another solid brick to his comeback trial into red-ball cricket.

The left-hander had made a hundred in Jharkhand’s opening round win over Madhya Pradesh in the recently concluded Buchi Babu Invitational tournament in Tamil Nadu.

That game in Coimbatore was his first red-ball match after the Test against the West Indies at Port of Spain in July 2023, and he carried on with his redemption act here as well.

He had Baba Indrajith (78, 136b, 9×4) for the company as the pair milked 189 runs for the third wicket stand to take India C to a commanding position.

Indrajith also had a slice of fortune as the Tamil Nadu batter had edged pacer Navdeep Saini to Sarfaraz Khan at slips just before lunch, and he walked off.

But Indrajith was called back to resume batting as Saini had overstepped during that delivery.

However, all this drama at the other end did not ruffle Kishan as he continued to dismantle India B bowlers.

Kishan played late and close to his body to nip the early movement and it was evidenced in the 10 boundaries he got across square and fine leg regions.

He had to make that technical adjustment as spinners – R Sai Kishore and Rahul Chahar – bowled just 17 overs between them this day.

Occasionally, power overshadowed his general finesse on the day as well, as whenever the opportunity presented itself, the left-hander was not hesitant to flex his muscles.

He hammered Saini for two sixes in the fine leg region and once lifted Mukesh Kumar over mid-wicket for maximums.

Eventually, he was bowled by pacer Mukesh, the most successful India bowler with three wickets, but he has already placed India C in a position of strength.

After Kishan’s departure, India C received a further move-on as Gaikwad came back and added some quick runs to push India B against the wall.

Brief score: India C: 357/5 in 79 overs (Ishan Kishan 111, Baba Indrajith 78, Ruturaj Gaikwad 46 batting; Mukesh Kumar 3/76) vs India B.

Ishan Kishan was in the news again on Thursday as he made a surprise appearance in the India C team for the Duleep Trophy match against India B at the Rural Development Trust Stadium B, Anantapur. Initially, BCCI’s release announcing the teams for the second round of the Duleep Trophy matches, did not have the wicketkeeper-batter’s name. However, on Thursday, Ishan Kishan came on to bat for India C at No. 4 position. 

He scored 111 off 126 balls. The innings included 14 fours and three sixes. 

We got Ishan Kishan century clip!

So proud of him and emotional today this is big for us King@ishankishan51 #IshanKishan #DuleepTrophy #DuleepTrophy2024 pic.twitter.com/1RacOucQ3V

— Ishan’s (@IshanWK32) September 12, 2024

He was initially named in India D squad for the first round of Duleep Trophy matches. 

Then, on September 4, BCCI said in a release, “Wicket-keeper batter Ishan Kishan has been ruled out of the first round of the Duleep Trophy due to a groin injury sustained during the ongoing All-India Buchi Babu Tournament. The BCCI Medical Team is closely monitoring his condition and working towards ensuring a swift recovery.” 

In the same release, BCCI also named the India C and India D squads for the first round of matches, which was, “India C: Ruturaj Gaikwad (C), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Abishek Porel (WK), B Indrajith, Hrithik Shokeen, Manav Suthar, Gaurav Yadav, Vyshak Vijaykumar, Anshul Khamboj, Himanshu Chauhan, Mayank Markande, Aryan Juyal (WK), Sandeep Warrier.

“India D squad: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Tushar Deshpande, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson (WK)” 

Later on September 10, the BCCI wrote in a release announcing squads for Duleep Trophy second round, “Team C squad remains unchanged for the second round. Updated India D squad: Shreyas lyer (C), Atharva Taide, Yash Dubey, Devdutt Padikkal, Ricky Bhui, Saransh Jain, Arshdeep Singh, Aditya Thakare, Harshit Rana, Akash Sengupta, KS Bharat (WK), Saurabh Kumar, Sanju Samson (WK), Nishant Sindhu, Vidwath Kaverappa.”

Hence, Kishan’s name was not there in both the squads.

Kishan had garnered negative publicity after he returned midway from India’s Tour of South Africa due to personal reasons late last year. Since then, he has not been considered for the national team though he is one of most aggressive options as wicketkeeper-batter in the country. 

Earlier, it was reported that his perceived reluctance to feature in domestic cricket was a likely reason behind him being ignored for international series. However, when he was named for the Duleep Trophy first round of matches, it was seen as a positive step.  

A setback for India C, captain Ruturaj Gaikwad retired hurt after facing just two balls in their Duleep Trophy 2024 match against India B at the Rural Development Trust Stadium B in Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh on Thursday. Gaikwad, who managed to hit a four on the first ball he faced, twisted his ankle on the next delivery and was forced to leave the field. India B won the toss and opted to bowl first, putting India C on the back foot early. Despite the early blow of losing their captain, India C managed to recover with a solid partnership between Sai Sudharsan and Rajat Patidar.

However, Gaikwad, who is the Chennai Super Kings captain, came on to bat later on.

Sudharsan scored 43 runs off 75 balls, while Patidar contributed 40 runs from 67 balls. The duo shared a crucial 92-run stand for the second wicket, facing 140 balls in total.

After their promising partnership, both batters were dismissed in quick succession, leaving Ishan Kishan and Baba Indrajith to rebuild the innings.

Reports said that Gaikwad twisted his ankle while running after facing a delivery from pacer Mukesh Kumar. Although he had to retire hurt, the injury is not considered serious, and he is expected to bat in the second innings. Gaikwad has had a challenging period in his red-ball cricket career recently.

The 27-year-old was named in India’s Test squad for the two-match series against South Africa last December but was ruled out due to a finger injury. In his first-class career, Gaikwad has played 30 games, amassing 2,092 runs with six centuries and ten fifties.

His first-class, List A, and T20 debuts came during the 2016-17 season for Maharashtra. Captain of India B Abhimanyu Easwaran won the toss and elected to bowl first.

India C’s: Ruturaj Gaikwad (c), Sai Sudharsan, Rajat Patidar, Ishan Kishan, Baba Indrajith, Abhishek Porel (Wk), Anshul Kamboj, Mayank Markande, Manav Suthar, Vyshak Vijay Kumar, and Sandeep Warrier.

India B: Abhimanyu Easwaran, Narayan Jagadeesan (Wk), Musheer Khan, Sarfaraz Khan, Rinku Singh, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar, Sai Kishore, Navdeep Saini, Rahul Chahar, and Mukesh Kumar.