Delhi
\nUntil last week, Navdeep Saini hadn\u2019t touched a red ball for over seven months. He was hoping to ease himself into the season with a steady diet of white-ball cricket courtesy of the Delhi Premier League (DPL).
\nBut when the Duleep Trophy call-up came, as a late replacement for Mohammed Siraj, he had to hit the ground running.
\nTwo days in, Saini has already had a bigger influence on the game than he may have imagined. A mix of stoic defence and the occasional free swing brought him an excellent half-century, his second in first-class cricket.
\nHe occupied the crease for 349 minutes, his longest vigil, during the course of a magnificent 205-run stand for the eighth wicket with Musheer Khan as India B recovered from 94 for 7 to post 321.
\nSaini\u2019s contribution was massive in helping Musheer build from an overnight 105 to a majestic 181. But that was one-half of his efforts on the second day\u2019s play in Bengaluru.
\nHe later delivered a telling early spell with the new ball to send Shubman Gill and Mayank Agarwal back. India A then recovered to finish on 125 for 2 still trailing India B by 187 runs.
\nGill was out shouldering arms to an in-ducker that flattened his off stump for 25, reminiscent of his dismissal to Australia\u2019s Scott Boland in last year\u2019s World Test Championship final.
\nAgarwal\u2019s wicket for 36 was slightly lucky; made possible thanks to Rishabh Pant\u2019s agility as he threw himself to his left to take a catch down the leg side to dismiss the opener who had tantalised the audience with a series of superb cover drives. Riyan Parag and KL Rahul, playing his first red-ball game since the Hyderabad Test against England in January 2024, then put together an unbroken 68-run partnership, allaying the early jitters.
\nRahul\u2019s was largely an exercise in denial after being lucky twice. Still on zero, he could have been Saini\u2019s third wicket when he nearly dragged a ball back on to the stumps while attempting a loose drive. Then, on 3, he was reprieved by Nitish Kumar Reddy at third slip after poking at an away-going delivery from Mukesh Kumar. Rahul scored his first runs off his 14th delivery and it wasn\u2019t until the fag end of the day, when he unfurled a superb cut behind point off Reddy, that he finally seemed in his element.
\nRahul\u2019s methods also had something to do with the appreciable movement Saini and left-arm seamer Yash Dayal were able to get. Either way, having been on the field for a better part of the game already, there couldn\u2019t have been a bigger endorsement of the middle-order batter\u2019s match fitness as he eyes a return to the Indian Test squad.
\nParag was a little more sprightly, even though he was occasionally troubled by the late movement on offer. He survived a close lbw shout early off Reddy when the ball curved away to hit him high on the back leg. Like Rahul, Parag is a stroke-maker but his willingness to show fight and deviate from his natural game was an encouraging sign.
\nThere were less encouraging signs as well from India A, like the tactics employed by their captain. Having taken the new ball at the first available opportunity at the start of the 81st over, Gill spread his field out to both Musheer and the No. 9 batter Saini. This not only limited the bowlers\u2019 ability to exert pressure, but it also helped India B push their total ever higher.
\nAfter Musheer initially denied himself run-scoring opportunities in trying to farm the strike, he was encouraged by Saini\u2019s ability to hold his own. The pair, however, got lucky when they were involved in a comical mix-up didn\u2019t somehow result in a wicket. Both batters were stranded mid-pitch looking at each other in the fourth over of the day, the 83rd of the innings, after Musheer had pushed the ball to point. Khaleel Ahmed, who could\u2019ve thrown at either end, eventually went for the striker\u2019s and missed with Saini having long given up.
\nAs Musheer opened himself out to take all the available runs, Gill tried to unsettle him by placing a leg slip. Musheer responded by hooking Avesh Khan for six, and then followed it up with a superb pull in front of square for a boundary in the same over. Along the way, Musheer also made judicious use of DRS to overturn two decisions – one lbw and one caught behind.
\nMusheer brought up his 150 off 326 balls when an overthrow allowed a second run with no one backing up. It summed up the state of play at the time, with India A running short of ideas. Soon after the landmark, Musheer launched Parag for a massive six over deep midwicket to signal a change in intentions.
\nBut a double-ton wasn\u2019t to be as he fell in the second over after lunch, a ball after he had slog-swept Kuldeep Yadav onto the roof at deep midwicket. Two of Musheer\u2019s three first-class hundreds are now 150-plus scores. This one, like the others, served to reiterate his maturity and hunger at 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delhi Until last week, Navdeep Saini hadn\u2019t touched a red ball for over seven months. He was hoping to ease himself into the season with a steady diet of white-ball cricket courtesy of the Delhi Premier League (DPL). But when the Duleep Trophy call-up came, as a late replacement for Mohammed Siraj, he had to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-429704","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n