Deodhar Trophy 2018-19: Match 1, India A vs India B, Review- A felo-de-se by Dinesh Karthik's men after getting to the verges of a win

The best performers from the Vijay Hazare Trophy were split into three teams to battle it out in the Deodhar Trophy. While usually India A, India B and the winner of Vijay Hazare Trophy are the three teams in the tournament, it was slightly different this time around. Instead of having the Mumbai team (winners of VHT), a new India C team was brought into existence.

This tweak was done keeping the World Cup 2019 in mind. The selectors, whoever players they wanted to have a look at, split them into these three sides. In the opening game of the tournament, India A led by Dinesh Karthik faced the Shreyas Iyer-led India B. India B won the game by 43 runs to add two crucial points to their tally.

Vihari plays a brilliant knock against the run of play

Shreyas Iyer won the toss and opted to bat first. Prashant Chopra, Rohit Rayudu and Krishnappa Gowtham were sidelined for this game for India B while it was Nitish Rana, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Shams Mulani for India B. The B team lost their opener Ruturaj Gaikwad early for just two runs. Then, Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer played good knocks. But at the stroke of reaching a half-century, both of them perished for 46 and 41 runs respectively.

The side was down to 95/3 before Hanuma Vihari and Manoj Tiwary put the innings back on track. Tiwary perished after scoring 52 thanks to an ugly mix-up with his partner. The batsmen lower down the order couldn’t really contribute and wickets kept tumbling. But, Vihari stayed positive, went hard after the bowlers to remain unbeaten on 87 off 95 balls as his team ended with 261/8 runs on the board at the end of 50 overs.

Markande-Nadeem eclipse Karthik-Ashwin pair

With Prithvi Shaw, Anmolpreet Singh, who averaged 65 from 7 list-A matches before this one, Karun Nair, Dinesh Karthik in the lineup, it was expected to be a cakewalk for India A. However, Shahbaz Nadeem had other plans. He dismissed both Shaw and Karun Nair off consecutive balls as the opposition was down to 8/2. Very soon, Anmolpreet  (16 off 17 balls) and Ankeet Bawne (3 off 21 balls) also headed back to the pavilion. The team was in all sorts of trouble at 60/4.

Just as they were looking to get things back on track, Varun Aaron cleaned up Krunal Pandya. However, Dinesh Karthik and Ashwin put up an amazing fight on display with the duo taking the team to a rather comfortable 209/5 in 42 overs. These two added 123 runs but things changed all of a sudden in a span of two overs.

First, Mayank Markande had Ashwin stumped out. Then, Dinesh Karthik was dismissed on 99 by Shahbaz Nadeem just after he was dropped off the previous ball. Markande was quick to wrap things up as India A was bowled out for and therefore lost the match by 43 runs. Nadeem picked three wickets while the leggie accounted for four.

Brief Scores:

India B: 261/8 in 50 overs (Hanuma Vihari 87*, Manoj Tiwary 52, Ravichandran Ashwin 2/39)

India A: in 50 overs (Dinesh Karthik 99, Ravichandran Ashwin 54, Mayank Markande 4/48)

Result: India B won the match by 43 runs.