Duleep Trophy: Musheer, Navdeep, Suthar, Rana stars of the day as India A, D look to solidify dominance

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], September 6 : A marathon partnership between Musheer Khan and Navdeep Saini and fine bowling performances from Manav Suthar and Harshit Rana were the highlights of the second day of action in Duleep Trophy on Friday.
Coming to the match between India A and B led by Shubman Gill and Abhimanyu Easwaran respectively in Bengaluru, Musheer and Navdeep continued their partnership, which started with score of 94/7. Ending day one at 202/7, Musheer and Navdeep showed no signs of slowing down.
Gill's bowlers had no answers for the batting by Musheer and Navdeep. Musheer continued to make strides in first-class cricket, reaching the 150-run mark in 325 balls, with 15 fours and three sixes.
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav ended Musheer's marathon effort with a fine catch from Riyan Parag. The partnership of 205 runs was broken, and Musheer walked back for a marvellous 181 in 373 balls, with 16 fours and five sixes.
India B reached the 300-run mark in 111 overs.
Navdeep also reached his milestone of half-century in 125 balls, with eight fours and a six. He was the last batter to be dismissed by Akash Deep for 56 in 144 balls. India B was all out for 321 runs in 116 overs.
Akash Deep (4/60) was the leading bowler for India A, while Khaleel Ahmed and Avesh Khan got two wickets.
Tasked with getting ahead of such a huge score, India A openers Gill and Mayank Agarwal started off strongly with some fine boundaries, reaching the 50-run mark in 13.1 overs.
However, Navdeep continued his heroics, this time with the ball, getting both Gill (25 in 43 balls, with three fours) and Mayank (36 in 45 balls, with eight fours), reducing India A to 66/2.
However, a 68-run partnership for third wicket between Riyan Parag (27*) and KL Rahul (23*) ended the day of action at 134/2 for India A, who were trailing by 187 runs.
Shifting the action to Anantpur between India D and India C, led by Shreyas Iyer and Ruturaj Gaikwad, respectively, India C started off day two at 91/4 after India D was earlier skittled out for 164 runs.
Baba Indrajith and Abishek Porel looked to form a partnership but Porel was removed for 34 by Harshit Rana. Indrajith however scored a half-century, batting without much support available. India C was bundled out for 168 runs in 62.2 overs, building a lead of just four runs.
Rana (4/33) was the top bowler for India D, while Axar Patel and Saransh Jain got two wickets each. Arshdeep Singh also got a wicket.
In reply, India D was 40/2, with openers Atharva Taide and Yash Dubey dismissed quickly by Vijaykumar Vyshak. However, half-centuries from Shreyas Iyer (54 in 44 balls, with nine fours and a six) and Devdutt Padikkal (56 in 70 balls, with eight fours) and a fine 44 from Ricky Bhui pushed India D to 206/8 at the day end, leading by 202 runs.
Manav Suthar got a five-wicket haul for India C.
Brief Scores: India B: 321 (Musheer Khan 181, Navdeep Saini 56, Akash Deep 4/60) leads India A: 134/2 (Mayank Agarwal 36, Riyan Parag 27*, Navdeep Saini 2/36) by 187 runs.
India D: 164 and 206/8 (Devdutt Padikkal 56, Shreyas Iyer 54, Manav Suthar 5/30) leads India C: 168 (Baba Indrajith 72, Abhishek Porel 34, Harshit Rana 4/33) by 202 runs.