India B 134 for 2 (Mayank 36, Parag 27*, Saini 2-36) Trail India A 321 (Musir 181, Saini 56, Akash Deep 4-60, Khalil 2-54) 187 runs
Rahul got lucky twice, but it was mostly a practice of denial. Still at 0, he could have been Saini’s third wicket when he dragged the ball back to the stumps while attempting a loose drive. Then, at 3, he was relieved by Nitish Kumar Reddy at third slip after poking Mukesh Kumar’s away delivery. Rahul scored his first run on the 14th delivery and by the end of the day, when he played a superb cut behind Reddy’s point, he finally looked in his element.
Rahul’s method also involved the notable movement that Saini and left-handed seamer Yash Dayal were able to get. Either way, having already been on the field for the better part of the match, there could not have been a greater boost to the match fitness of the middle-order batsmen who are eyeing a return to the Indian Test squad.
Parag was a little more lively, although he occasionally suffered from late moves. He survived a near lbw call from Reddy early on, when the ball curved and hit him high on his back leg. Like Rahul, Parag is a strokemaker, but his willingness to show fight and break away from his natural game was an encouraging sign.
There were less encouraging signs from India A, as was the tactic used by the captain. Gill, who took the new ball at the first possible opportunity at the start of the 81st over, spread the field to Musheer and number 9 batsman Saini. This not only limited the pressure of the bowlers but also helped India B to increase their total.
After Musheer initially denied himself a chance to score by farming the strike, Saini was inspired by his ability to hold his own. However, the pair were lucky when they got involved in a ridiculous confusion that did not lead to a wicket. In the fourth over of the day, the 83rd over of the innings, the two batsmen were stranded in the middle of the pitch, looking at each other, after Musheer had pushed the ball to point. Khaleel Ahmed, who could throw at either end, eventually went for the striker but missed as Saini had given up long before.
As Musheer opened himself up to take every possible run, Gill tried to unsettle him by going to leg slip. Musheer responded by hooking Avesh Khan for a six, then followed up with a brilliant full in front of square for a boundary in the same over. Along the way, Musheer also used DRS judiciously to overturn two decisions – one lbw and one caught behind.
Musheer scored 150 off 326 balls and conceded his second run on an overthrow when no one was backing him up. It summed up the state of the game at the time, with India A running out of ideas. Soon after this landmark, Musheer signalled a change of intention by firing Parag over deep midwicket for a six.
But it wasn’t a double ton as he fell in his second over after lunch, after sweeping Kuldeep Yadav over the roof at deep midwicket. Two of Musher’s three First-Class hundreds are now above 150. Like the others, this score served to reiterate the 19-year-old’s maturity and hunger.
Shashank Kishore is the Senior Sub-Editor at ESPNcricinfo.
