Gen Next stole the thunder from an array of present Team India stars as Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav showed the temperament, skills, big-hitting ability and willingness to improvise to take India C to the final of the Deodhar Trophy.
On a fresh Kotla pitch that thankfully played better than last two, Shubman and Surya chased down 294 to dump a star-studded India A to its second straight defeat and set up a India B vs C final on Saturday.
Shubman hit the winning runs to remain unbeaten on 106 -- tournament's first century – while Surya remained not out on 56 from 36 balls with 3 boundaries and 4 sixes to win with 18 balls to spare. And to put their effort in perspective, no team has managed to win chasing at the Kotla in this tournament.
A red wristband and red towel hanging over his waist looked shabby on his blue and black attire but Shubman batting was pleasing to the eyes. Shubman Gill played his strokes with great ease where Ajinkya Rahane and Suresh Raina floundered, and showed the required maturity to carry a robust chase almost single-handedly.
Shubman reached his half-century in 63 balls and along with Suryakumar Yadav took the India A bowlers to task. Dinesh Karthik rotated his seven bowlers, including five India bowlers, without getting any respite as Shubman and Suryakumar mostly dealt in boundaries and sixes during their 90 run unbeaten fifth wicket partnership.
Shubman also stacked up a 121 run partnership with Ishan Kishan, who made 69 from 60 balls as they made R Ashwin, Mohd Siraj, Siddhath Kaul, Dhawal Kulkarni and Kedar Jadav looked ordinary. Jadav, wee bit disappointed not to make his return into India side, did have a better outing with the bat.
Jadhav came into bat at No.5, predominantly to get a clearance certificate from the selectors on his dodgy hamstring, but also deftly whipped up the team’s score to 293 with a 25-ball knock of 41. Jadhav hit just 2 sixes and 2 boundaries and ran the other runs hard to provide credibility on his full fitness. Jadhav’s knock provided a perfect finish to some enterprising innings from the top 4 India A batsmen.
Openers Abhimanyu Eashwaran and Anmolpreet Singh along with Nitish Rana at No.3 got half-centuries while putting on 99 and 76 run partnership for the first two wickets. The batting card read 69, 59, 68 before Dinesh Karthik came in at No.4 to score 23-ball 32 to set up the game for the final five over flourish. Vijay Shankar picked up three in his 10 overs while Rahul Chahar took two conceding 79 in his full quota.
Having given its entire squad atleast a game, India C will make a couple of changes in their XI, boosting their bowling resources a bit, in the final against India B.