Courtesy: BCCI/X
On day four of their Duleep Trophy 2024 clash at the Rural Development Trust Stadium in Anantapur, India A steamrolled India D by 186 runs to register their first win of the tournament in their second match. Shams Mulani was declared the player of the match for scoring a valuable fifty in the first innings for India A before picking up key wickets in both the innings against India D, to help his team reach third place with six points in the Duleep Trophy standings, a red-ball tournament involving four teams.
After winning the toss, the India D captain, Shreyas Iyer, decided to put India A into batting first, and his bowlers managed to reduce the opposition to 140/6 at one stage before Shams Mulani (89 off 187) and Tanush Kotian (53 off 80), stitched together a 95-run stand for the seventh wicket. It led to India A putting up a decent score of 290 runs on the board in their first innings after Harshit Rana picked up four wickets in India D colours.
Pratham Singh and Tilak Varma scored hundreds in second innings for India A against India D
In response, the first innings of India D was below par to say the least as they were bundled out of 183 runs with three wickets each for Khaleel Ahmed and Aqib Khan, despite the 92 off 124 with 15 fours from Devdutt Padikkal. With a first innings lead of 107 runs, India A ran riot with the bat in hand with the likes of Pratham Singh and Tilak Varma notching up hundreds, while the captain Mayank Agarwal and Shashwat Rawat got fifties as well.
India A declared their second innings at 380/3, to set up a massive 488-run target for India D to chase down in the final innings of the Duleep Trophy 2024 match. Ricky Bhui brought up a hundred in the run chase in the India D colours, but Tanush Kotian and Shams Mulani shared seven wickets among themselves, to help bundle them out for 301 runs.
Before the third and the final round of Duleep Trophy, India C are leading the standings with nine points, ahead of India B and India A by two and three points respectively. India D are yet to open their account on the points table after losing both their first two matches in the tournament.
