Deodhar Trophy: Rahane, Ishan tons guide India C to title victory

India C was forced to rearrange their plans to survive a slight scare with Deepak Chahar and Iyer’s lusty hits but eventually skipper Ajinkya Rahane managed to close out the victory, restricting opponents to 323 to defend his team score of 352

This was what they were playing for the last four days in succession; a little silver trophy kept on top of a rickety wooden table draped over in blue satin cloth at the sidelines of Feroz Shah Kotla. The players managed a brief photo-op, both team pictures and individual ones before it went back into the case for his journey back to Mumbai BCCI office. Till next year to a different destination; and hopefully not in an altogether rejigged concept again.

Perhaps, the players were rather more eager, and interested, playing for their respective berths in one of the many teams that MSK Prasad-led selection committee chose last night to tour Australia and New Zealand over various formats. With no berths and just photo-ops at stake, the players broke open the shackles, and shrug away the disappointments, to entertain with some breath-taking strokeplay on a pitch that showed extra sturdiness to support their skills.

India C emerged the new champions of Prof DB Deodhar Trophy, avenging their league game loss to India B with a 29-run win in the final that witnessed 675 runs aggregate in 96 overs of play on Saturday. In a tournament that witnessed just 1 century over three games, saw three in one day itself — two coming from respective captains of the side.

Shreyas Iyer outscored Ajinkya Rahane by hitting 148 from 114 with 8 sixes and 11 boundaries as compared to his senior Mumbai counterpart’s steady unbeaten 144 but still couldn’t pull his side over in a single-handed effort.

The day’s story started with Ishan Kishan, batting in typical Test match format, showing a dead bat to most deliveries angled on his body and left anything that way pitched outside. Ishan gobbled up 32 balls for his first 6 runs with the bat and then struck a six to switch over to T20 mode. Ishan was severe on the spinners — Gowtham, Manoj Tiwary, Shahbaz Nadeem and Mayank Markande — to reach his century in blistering style, off just 75 deliveries and was eventually dismissed for 114 off 86, having belted 6 sixes and 11 boundaries.

Rahane, at the other end, was brisk in the initial overs by his own standards and looked determined to convert his first start of the tournament into three figures. He managed to do that twice, literally, after a scoring goof-up between official scorers, television scorers and ground scoreboard reflected a difference of three runs in between. Rahane first celebrated his ton to acknowledge the crowd who reacted to the ground scoreboard, and three runs later, raised his bat towards the dressing room to ‘officially’ register his hundred.

Rahane’s knock was overshadowed by Ishan at the start and later by Surya Kumar Yadav’s towering hits but the India C skipper was more content to carry his bat through the innings. But it was Yadav’s clean hits that provided impetus to the total to barge past 350-mark and punctured Markande and Chahar’s analysis beyond repair. Yadav hit 4 sixes in total on way his 18-ball 39 and divided his runs equally on either side of the wicket. Jaydev Unandkat was the only bowler from India B to return satisfied into the dressing room at lunch, picking up three wickets and conceded just 52 to return ‘economical’ in his 10 overs.

India B’s response showed the required aggression, with Shreyas Iyer leading the charge along with Ruturaj Gaikwad to add 116 runs for the second wicket. Iyer reached his fifty almost run a ball — in 51 balls to be precise — playing second fiddle to Gaikwad but took over the baton in the middle overs. Iyer played his part even as Gaikwad, Hanuma Vihari and Manoj Tiwary fell in the span of just 4 overs. Bowlers on either side, especially spinners, bore the brunt of the mighty bat but there were exceptions like Pappu Roy.

Roy flighted his deliveries well to deceive the batsmen in the air and was rewarded with 3 wickets for 75, despite a bit of shoddy work in the outfield off his bowling to spoil his overall figures and a no-ball from Vijay Shankar to provide a reprieve to Iyer. He made the most of it with some crisp shots in front of the wicket to take the match deep and get to his century from 80 balls as well.

India C was forced to rearrange their plans to survive a slight scare with Deepak Chahar and Iyer’s lusty hits but eventually skipper Ajinkya Rahane managed to close out the victory, restricting opponents to 323 to defend his team score of 352.  For a small photo session; and then, a quick flight home to be back in Delhi again, this time for Ranji Trophy.