Marvellous Musheer!

Musheer Khan is ecstatic after scoring his century yesterday. Pic/PTI

KL Rahul waited patiently for the end-of-day fist-bump routine between the two not out batters, then walked up to Musheer Khan and extended his hand in congratulation. It was an acknowledgement by a man with 50 Test appearances of the mind-over-matter display of a 19-year-old who had single-handedly prevented his team's complete meltdown at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday.

The opening day of the Duleep Trophy season was dominated by the India ‘A' bowlers, who took a little while to justify Shubman Gill's decision to field, but then cut a swathe through the India ‘B' batting. But as wickets tumbled around him, Musheer held firm, showcasing a maturity beyond his years and batting according to the conditions to eke out an excellent third first-class century.

Unbeaten stand with Saini

It was on the back of his unbeaten 105, his second ton in as many first-class games, and an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 108 with Navdeep Saini, that India ‘B' escaped to respectability, reaching 202 for seven when stumps were drawn.

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Khaleel Ahmed, mainly, and Akash Deep to a lesser extent didn't make the most of the new ball, erring more in length than direction despite reasonable assistance from overcast skies and a green deck adorned with live grass. Yashasvi Jaiswal in particular made merry, playing a bouquet of handsome strokes, but it was his dismissal, caught at point cut-driving Khaleel, that set the cat among the pigeons.

It took an hour for the India ‘A' quicks to hit their straps, but once they did so, Khaleel, Deep and Avesh Khan were excellent. Sarfaraz Khan was trapped in front, Rishabh Pant's red-ball comeback lasted just 10 deliveries when a leading edge was superbly taken by Gill, running some 20 yards back from mid-off, and Deep then cleaned up Nitish Reddy first ball with a beauty.

Amidst the carnage around him, Musheer stood tall. He wasn't averse to walking down the track to negate potential swing, though he also played as late and close to his body as possible. He looked at home against the left-arm wrist-spin of Kuldeep Yadav, and even though Washington Sundar, unfortunately run out backing up, and Sai Kishore too perished cheaply, he seldom overreached or played beyond himself.

Two towering sixes

Emboldened by Saini walking the talk and putting a price on his scalp, Musheer opened up with two towering sixes and then scrambled through for the single that took him to three-figures. Older brother Sarfaraz was among the more enthusiastic celebrators, but he wasn't the only one breaking out in applause. It really was that kind of an innings.

Brief scores
India ‘B' 202-7 (M Khan 105', Y Jaiswal 30; A Deep 2-28, K Ahmed 2-39, A Khan 2-42) v India ‘A'