Shikhar Dhawan strikes form in Deodhar Trophy

The quarter-final match of the Deodhar Trophy saw out of form batsman Shikhar Dhawan get back among the runs in some style. The left-handed batsman who is a part of the India B team scored a magnificent 128 from 122 deliveries to put his side in command batting first.

The century was his 21st List A century and it was a knock which included 13 boundaries and 6 biggies. Dhawan, who has been out of form for quite some time now had been ignored for the ongoing Test series against Australia. The player last featured for the men in blue against England. The left-hander opened the innings with India B skipper Parthiv Patel and helped his team to a solid opening stand of 93 runs. His partnership of 103 runs with Jharkhand batsman Ishank Jaggi was also very crucial in recording the huge total of 327.

Parthiv and Jaggi’s innings were vital for the India B team as they supported Dhawan right through. Jaggi was in tremendous form in the recently finished Vijay Hazare Trophy and that showed in the match. The batsman managed a score of 53 runs which included six fours and one six. The innings took just 51 balls before he was stumped by Rishabh Pant of India A.

As far as India A’s bowling is concerned, the most notable performance came from S Kaul who picked up 5 wickets for 59 runs. India A skipper Harbhajan Singh had a poor outing as he went for 72 runs without a wicket. Krunal Pandya grabbed two and Deepak Hooda took one wicket as the team in total picked up eight India B wickets.

Chasing a mammoth score of 328 India A fell short by 23 runs ending up on the losing side. Ambati Rayudu top-scored for the India A side with a knock of 92 runs.