The much-anticipated round 1 of the Duleep Trophy got underway on Thursday (September 5) in Bengaluru and Anantapur. The young 19-year-old sensation from Mumbai Musheer Khan stole all the spotlight, shining bright among the big names present for the start of India’s domestic season. Musheer scored a wonderful century in his Duleep Trophy debut to rescue India B out of deep trouble on Day 1 of the competition.
Coming into bat when his team was under pressure, Musheer seemed to be a bit nervous initially but eventually built his confidence ball-by-ball and dragged his team’s score to 202/7 single-handedly at the end of the first day’s play.
India’s pace challengers drew early attention in the opening two sessions. Yashasvi Jaiswal had to make a few nervous plays and misses due to movement from Khaleel Ahmed and Akash Deep on an overcast pitch with a hint of green.
India B, being put into bat started off in a decent manner, with Yashasvi Jaiswal and Easwaran seeing off a tough first hour of play. Avesh Khan broke through the opening stand dismissing Easwaran who was caught behind, with Dhruv Jurel taking a wonderful diving catch. Khaleel returned at the same time for a more menacing second spell, and he was lucky to see Jaiswal hit a widish delivery straight to point. He concluded with a spell of 5-2-15-1 and found the lines from round the wicket to the right-handers handy.
India B was looking alright until lunch, with a score of 65 for 2. The second session began on a good note for India A with Avesh trapping Sarfaraz LBW with a sharp incoming delivery. Rishab Pant, who was making a return to red-ball cricket then came into bat at 5, but could not manage to make his return a one to remember. In a scratchy stay that lasted only ten balls, Pant ended up skying a catch while trying to take on a metronomic Akash. The Bengal pacer Akash discovered his lengths and was increasingly menacing. He got Nitish Reddy out for a golden duck with a ball that pitched in line and seamed away.
India B were left tottering at 94 for 7 as they lost their 5th wicket in the 2nd session. As the day went on, the one thing that gave them comfort was a determined Musheer Khan. The younger brother of Sarfraz had remained steadfast despite being put to the test on a regular basis, which included a near LBW shout off Shivam Dube. However, he persisted in battling it out, scoring a half-century off 118 balls.
As the sun started to set, he continued to farm the strike with Navdeep Saini and opted to use Kuldeep Yadav’s spin as a scoring option. He used the sweep well, managing four boundaries off the senior spinner. Musheer began to up the ante against a weary bowling attack in the final session and reached to a well-deserved hundred. He and Saini stitched an unbeaten 108-run stand to end the 1st day’s play.
India B – 202/7 (Musheer Khan 105*; Akash Deep 2-28)
ALSO READ: Matthew Mott appointed as Sydney Sixers’ assistant coach
