Deodhar Trophy | India C beat India B in high scoring final

Winning the toss, Ajinkya Rahane, captain for the India C team, chose to bat first and it proved to be a great decision as he and his team made the most of the opportunity. The openers Ajinkya Rahane and Ishan gave their team a strong and steady start making 144* and 114 respectively and formed a huge partnership of 210 runs for the first wicket before Ishan got out. For the second wicket, another half century partnership ensued but as soon as Shubham Gill got out for 29 runs thereafter the batting side lost a sense of direction and they still managed to get to a total of 352 in the allotted 50 overs. It was not a good day to be a bowler and even though seven wickets were claimed in the innings, the bowlers were taken for a lot of runs.  However, it was India B’s Jaydev Unadkat who was the impressive one of the lot claiming three wickets for just 52 runs in his full quota of overs. Apart from Unadkat, Deepak Chahar and Mayank Markandey bagged two wickets each.

Coming to the second half of the game, it was a much better chase than the scorecard depicts. Though India B lost their first wicket early, they made it up for the loss by forming a 116 runs partnership for the second wicket. Captain of the India B side, Shreyas Iyer (148) and R D Gaikwad (60) formed the partnership for the second wicket. But after the solid second wicket partnership, there was no major partnership to show off for the India B side but the team skipper hung around up until the final ball of the 43rd over. Up until that stage, the match was well poised but as soon as the skipper got out within 19 more balls the India B innings packed up. The India B side lost their last four wickets for only 14 runs which ultimately cost them the match. Amongst wickets were, apart from Pappu Roy, who finished with figures of 3/72, Navdeep Saini(2/47), Rajneesh Gurbani (2/61) and Vijay Shankar(2/62). This way India B innings folded up with 29 runs to score from 23 balls to bowl and they lost the final. India C skipper Ajinkya Rahane was adjudged the man of the match for his unbeaten century.