Bengaluru: It’s easy to see why India A is called so just on the basis of the technical excellence of their top four batters.
Between Mayank Agarwal, Shubman Gill, Riyan Parag and KL Rahul, there was enough batting-book nuance to cherish and clamour over, and the small holiday crowd did.
Still, it was Musheer Khan’s prodigious talent - even if somewhat unorthodox - which earned the most hype on the second day of India A’s four-day contest against India B at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mumbai orchestrated a memorable knock to help India B wriggle out of a quandary.
On the back of his 181 and Navdeep Saini’s 56, India B reached 321 all out in 116 overs. India A ended their opening essay on 134 for 2 in 35 overs to trail their opponents by 187 runs.
It must be recalled, however, that India B were down seven wickets for 94 runs on the opening day after Akash Deep (4/60) and Avesh Khan (2/59) put a dent in their scheme.
Musheer, though, wasn’t going down easy, and he ensured Saini imbibed the same spirit. The duo added a record 205 runs for the eighth wicket from 403 deliveries and 323 minutes.
It did help that there was lesser movement on the second day, but the unbeaten 105 Musheer compiled on the opening day gave him the confidence and the freedom to go at the bowlers a bit harder when called on to continue his innings the next day.
As Musheer expressed himself without overthinking the scenario, Gill’s India A were evidently unamused by the situation they were in.
A well-disguised googly from Kuldeep Yadav put an end to Musheer’s stay as he went for a heave and ended up top-edging it to Riyan Parag in the deep.
Saini hung around for a while, but eventually, India B’s retaliation ended, and the crowd grew in excitement as India A’s stars were about to wield their bats.
It started with Gill's crisp technical brilliance, which complemented Agarwal’s fluid feet.
None of that mattered for long because Gill’s inability to judge his off-stump cost him his wicket, and Agarwal’s apprehensive flick nestled in Rishabh Pant’s gloves behind the stumps.
Saini had sent the opening pair back and was zeroing in on Rahul and Parag, but the duo - pleasing in aesthetic - remained undeterred and took the side to a healthy score.
It must be noted that India A’s batting prowess is rather top-heavy because they only have Dhruv Jurel and Shivam Dube to depend on going forward. This means the unbeaten pair of Rahul (23 n.o.) and Parag (27 n.o.) will need to dig in and do what Musheer and Saini managed.
Sure, the situation isn’t so dire, but a healthy cloud cover is expected on Saturday so the likes of Mukesh Kumar, Yash Dayal, Saini and even Nitish Kumar Reddy will have more to work with than they did today.
Brief scores (At Anantpur): India D: 164 and 206/8 in 49 overs (Shreyas Iyer 50, Devdutt Padikkal 56, Ricky Bhui 44; Vyshak Vijaykumar 2-51, Manav Suthar 5-30) vs India C: (O/n: 91/4): 168 all out in 62.2 overs (Baba Indrajith 72, Abhishek Porel 34; Harshit Rana 4-33, Axar Patel 2-46, Saransh Jain 2-16).
SCOREBOARD INDIA B (I Innings O/n: 202/1): Yashasvi Jaiswal c (sub) b Khaleel 30 (59b 6x4) Abhimanyu Easwaran c Jurel b Avesh 13 (42b 1x4) Musheer Khan c Parag b Kuldeep 181 (373b 16x4 5x6) Sarfaraz Khan lbw Avesh 9 (35b 1x4) Rishabh Pant c Gill b Akash 7 (10b 1x4) Nitish Kumar Reddy b Akash 0 (1) Washington Sundar (run out) ) 0 (13b) Sai Kishore c Rahul b Khaleel 1 (15b) Navdeep Saini c Parag b Akash 56 (144b 8x4 1x6) Yash Dayal c Agarwal b Akash Deep 10 (6b 1x4 1x6) Mukesh Kumar (not out) 0 (1b). Extras (B-4 LB-6 W-1 NB-3) 14. TOTAL (all out 116 overs) 321. Fall of wickets: 1-33 (Easwaran) 2-53 (Jaiswal) 3-67 (Sarfaraz) 4-80 (Pant) 5-80 (Nitish) 6-89 (Washington) 7-94 (Sai Kishore) 8-299 (Musheer) 9-320 (Dayal). Bowling: Khaleel Ahmed 23-6-54-2 Akash Deep 27-7-60-4 (nb-2) Avesh Khan 22-6-59-2 Shivam Dube 12-4-14-0 (nb-1) Kuldeep Yadav 21-3-82-1 Tanush Kotian 7-0-30-0 Riyan Parag 4-0-12-0. INDIA A (I Innings): Mayank Agarwal c Pant b Saini 36 (45b 8x4) Shubman Gill b Saini 25 (43b 3x4) Parag (batting) 27 (49b 4x4) Rahul (batting) 23 (80b 3x4). Extras (B-12 LB-4 NB-7) 23. TOTAL (for 2 wkts 35 overs) 134. Fall of wickets: 1-57 (Gill) 2-66 (Agarwal). Bowling: Mukesh Kumar 9-0-40-0 (nb-2) Yash Dayal 10-1-25-0 (nb-2) Nitish Kumar Reddy 8-1-36-0 (nb-2) Navdeep Saini 8-1-36-2 (nb-2) Sai Kishore 1-0-1-0.