Kotian and Mulani team up to secure India A’s first win

Tanush Kotian (73 for 4) and Shams Mulani (117 for 3) guided their team to a massive 186-run victory in the India A vs India D match at the Rural Development Trust Stadium in Anantapur. The duo, who fortuitously rescued India from a dicey situation with a 91-run stand in the first innings, took most of the nine wickets on Day 4 despite Ricky Bhui’s best efforts to ensure at least a draw.

With a daunting target of 488 to his name late on the third day, Bhui began to fight back, reaching a stroke-packed 44. He resumed in the same vein, but the batsmen around him could not keep up with him. His batting partner for the night, Yash Dubey, started to give it a serious go but was dismissed with an unlucky run-out. He tried to avoid Bhui’s on-drive but the ball bounced off his bat towards bowler Mulani, who quickly shook off the viles to get Dubey out. In the next over, the left-arm spinner bowled a looping turner that inside-edged Devdutt Padikkal, who had scored fifty in the first innings, to be dismissed by just one.

Shreyas Iyer swung for the fence and built a solid stand with Booy but he too was run out by Mulani. The spinners started to make good use of the rough and got some incredible rotation that pushed the batsmen back. Shreyas tried to counter punch but crumbled in the process. An inside edge swiped across the leg side and onto the stumps to make it 41 off 55 balls. In the next over, Booy fended off a caught behind appeal but the opposing captain, Mayank Agarwal, seemed unhappy with the decision. The ultra edge had some rustling as the ball passed the bat but the third umpire ruled it was not an edge.

Like Shreyas, Sanju Samson also came on in an aggressive manner. He and Bhui played sweeping shots and tried to disrupt Mulani’s delivery with their legs against the spinners. They did this for some time around the lunch break, but Mulani again brought a promising innings to a premature end. This time it was Samson who fell victim to a tossed-up full ball that just outside off gripped and spun into Kumar Kushagra behind stumps. Samson finished with 40 runs from 45 balls, hitting three fours and three sixes, before slowly pacing.

Kotian then went on to destroy whatever fight India D had put up up to that point, scoring four runs, including a prized catch from Bhui, who fell for 113. Kotian got the ball to Riyan Parag at first slip, who then began his downward spiral by taking the wicket of Saransh Jain. Parag repeated the feat, albeit tougher and lower, to bring the curtains down on Bhui’s innings. Parag, who has a record hundred runs, defended a flat delivery outside the off stump and got the ball. The third umpire’s intervention was required to determine whether Parag had his fingers fully under the ball when he caught it.

Saurabh Kumar and Harshit Rana swung the bat in an attempt to postpone the inevitable, but Kotian sealed the victory. He caught Saurabh leg-before and Rana at short leg. Parag then put the finishing touches on the innings, inside-edging a lobbed ball from Vidhwat Kaveerappa and Pratham Singh diving forward to complete the catch at short leg forward.

Easy Score: India A 290 (Shams Mulani 89, Tanush Kotian 53, Harshit Rana 4-51) & 380/3 d.o. (Pratham Singh 122, Tilak Varma 111*, Mayank Agarwal 56) beat India D 183 (Devdutt Padikkal 92, Aaqib Khan 3-31, Khaleel Ahmed 3-39) for 301 (Ricky Bhui 113, Shreyas Iyer 41, Sanju Samson 40); Tanush Kotian 4-73, Shams Mulani 3-117) by 186 runs