Duleep Trophy: Gill, Parag flop as India A lose to India B

The pace trio of Yash Dayal, Mukesh Kumar and Navdeep Saini did the damage with the ball as Abhimanyu Easwaran-led India B outclassed India A by 76 runs in the Duleep Trophy match at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium, in Bengaluru, on Sunday.

Chasing 275, India A were bundled out for 198 in their second innings as left-arm seamer Dayal (3/50), with able support from his colleagues Mukesh Kumar (2/50) and Navdeep Saini (2/41), led the India B attack. Wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant stood out with his glovework as he took five catches in India A's second innings in his first red-ball

K L Rahul was the top-scorer for India A with a watchful knock of 57 from 121 balls, while pacer Akash Deep, who took 5/56 in India B's second innings, stroked a quickfire 43 from 42 balls.

India B were bowled out for 184 in their second innings with fast bowler Akash taking 5/56 in 14 overs, while Khaleel Ahmed claimed 3/68. Pant was the top-scorer for India B as he stroked a quickfire 61 from 47 balls with nine fours and two sixes, while Sarfaraz Khan smashed 46 from 36 balls.

India's A run chase began on a shaky note as Mayank Agarwal departed in the second over itself, wafting Dayal away from his body to Nitish Kumar Reddy, who made a wonderful diving catch at second slip.

That brought Riyan Parag to the middle and the right-hander followed the path set on Saturday by Rishabh Pant and Sarfaraz Khan.

Parag took on the bowlers and pacer Mukesh bore the brunt of his aggression, getting smoked for two sixes and the second maximum touched the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium over the mid-wicket region.

Parag added 48 runs for the second with a rather subdued Shubman Gill, who was dropped by Nitish Reddy at slips off Mukesh on 16, and 31 came off the former's bat in just 18 balls.

But the approach was tough to sustain considering the kind of assistance the bowlers were getting here, and soon his massive hoick off Dayal took an edge off Parag's bat to be caught behind by Pant.

Gill (21) departed soon, falling to Saini for the second time in the match and on this occasion, he edged the pacer to Pant.

Dhruv Jurel poked Dayal well outside off-stump to Yashasvi Jaiswal at gully, as India batters perished to a combination of bowlers' persistence on that channel and their own carelessness.

They were st 76/4 that soon transpired into 99 for six after the dismissal of Shivam Dube and Tanush Kotian, an hour into the lunch.

However, Rahul batted out 180 minutes 121 balls and milked 42 runs for the seventh wicket with Kuldeep Yadav to delay the inevitable.

The standout shot in an otherwise dour innings was a whistling on drive off Mukesh that fetched him a boundary.

But Mukesh had his revenge soon when Rahul feathered a cut off him to Pant, who completed five catches in this innings, soon after reaching his fifty with a single off Saini.

It effectively signalled the end of the road of for India A, though Akash Deep entertained, smashing a quickfire 43 from 42 balls. But beyond the entertainment value, it always was a case of when more than if.

Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 150/6 India B could only 34 runs more to the total before getting bundled out.

Pacer Akash, whom Sarfaraz Khan carted around for five fours in a row the previous day, found his mojo to add the scalps of Washington Sundar and Saini to complete a five-wicket haul (5/56).

The spell will keep his name floating among the contenders when the selectors sit together soon to pick up squad for two-match Test series against Bangladesh.