Deodhar Trophy: Fazal’s ton helps India A win the title clash: Playing an innings panning 159 minutes, scoring 100 runs (his 5th List A century in his 64th match) off 112 deliveries, studded with 9 fours and 3 sixes, 30-year old Faiz Yaub Fazal, ensured a victory for India A in the title clash against India B at the Green Park, Kanpur.
Ambatti Tirupathi Rayudu, leading India A, won the toss and elected to bat.
The opening pair of Fazal and Murali Vijay gave a ‘dream start’ putting on 162 runs for the first wicket in 31.2 overs, when Vijay fell after scoring 69 runs off 91 deliveries with 3 fours and 3 sixes. He had reached his half-century in 79 deliveries with 3 fours and a six.
Fazal continued the good work for another 5 overs and unfortunately was run-out with the team score at 187/3 in 36.2 overs. His half-century came in 72 deliveries with 5 fours and 2 sixes. In fact he moved from 48 runs to 54 runs with a huge six off Karn Sharma. This huge hit also brought the century of India A. They moved from 96/0 to 102/0 in the first delivery of the 23rd over.
The skipper, Rayudu, chipped in with 21 runs off 20 deliveries with a four and a six.
A quick-fire unbeaten 58* runs off just 39 deliveries with 4 fours and 2 sixes by Kedar Jadhav ensured that India A finished their innings at a score of 286 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in 50 overs. Jadhav registered his 19th List A half-century in his 73rd innings in 32 deliveries with 3 fours and 2 sixes. He moved from 47 to 51 by a four off Dhawal Kulkarni.
Medium pacers Dhawal Kulkarni (10-1-31-2) and Nathu Singh (10-0-58-2) were the chief wreckers for India B.
Needing 287 runs for a win, India B had a disastrous start, losing both the openers, skipper Unmukt Chand (8) and Mayank Agarwal (3) very cheap. Baba Aparajith also failed to open his account and India B found themselves struggling at 12 runs for the loss of 3 wickets in 3.5 overs.
Shreyas Iyer,/ who then, put on a 28-run partnership in 6.4 overs for the fourth wicket alongwith Suryakumar Yadav, departed with his individual tally of 24 runs off 27 deliveries.
Yadav and Stuart Binny then got together and added a valuable 62 runs in 11.2 overs to take the score to 116/6 in 25.4 overs when Yadav left after scoring 45 runs off 52 deliveries that contained 5 fours and a six.
With all the recognised batsmen back in the hut, it was totally on Binny to keep up the fight. Alongwith Karn Sharma (28) Binny was able to add another 50 runs in 6.2 overs.
Finally he fell at the team score of 197/9 in 40.1 overs, after putting up 60 runs off 73 deliveries with 7 fours. His 7th List A half-century, in his 62nd innings, came in 67 deliveries with 5 fours.
Soon after Binny’s exit, India B ended their innings with the score of 199 runs in 40.4 overs on the board.
Left-arm spinner Shabaz Nadeem (9.4-2-36-3) and the medium pacers, Srinath Aravind (8-0-43-2), Krishna Das (9-2-32-2) and Shardul Thakur (7-0-47-2) did not give much leeway to the India B batsmen, who could never recover after the initial shock losing the openers, early on in the innings.
India A won the title by margin of 87 runs.
For his exploits with the bat, Fazal was awarded the Player of the Match.
