Duleep Trophy 2024: Ishan Kishan century powers India C to dominant start against India B on day one

This is the first-ever First-Class match being played at the ground and Kishan, who initially wasn’t in the India C squad, marked the occasion with a special innings in which he seemed to be tested with short balls.

FILE PHOTO: Ishan Kishan in action. | Photo Credit: AP

That Ishan Kishan batted from out of nowhere was surprising, but his sparkly strokes weren’t, as his 111 (126b, 14x4, 3x6) helped India C rack up 357 for five on day one versus India B in the second round of the Duleep Trophy at the Rural Development Trust stadium B-ground here on Thursday.

This is the first-ever First-Class match being played at the ground and Kishan, who initially wasn’t in the India C squad, marked the occasion with a special innings in which he seemed to be tested with short balls.

In fact, he was dropped twice off short balls in successive overs when he was in his thirties. He pulled Navdeep Saini to deep backward square-leg, where Nitish Kumar Reddy leapt and stopped a certain six even though he couldn’t hold on to it. In the next over, Kishan mistimed a pull off Nitish and this time, Mukesh Kumar from mid-on had to shuffle, turn back, run, and dive for a dropped catch.

But these were just aberrations in an otherwise dominant innings. For instance, after Tea, he hooked a short ball off Saini behind square on the leg side for it to sail for a six over the tall R. Sai Kishore, who also leapt a bit, on the outfield.

He brought up his hundred with a straight four off Sai Kishore and then seemingly decided to go for the jugular. After a pull for a six to the square-leg boundary off Mukesh, he charged and missed his big hit to be bowled on the next ball.

He accumulated 189 runs with Baba Indrajith (78, 136b, 9x4), who dug in and held on to the other end. Indrajith was fortunate when he edged Saini to be caught by Sarfaraz Khan at slip off a no-ball. A spin-master, he remarkably played two exotic cover-drives off Sai Kishore.

Skipper and opener Ruturaj Gaikwad retired hurt a ball after he’d hit the first ball of the match for a four off Mukesh. He’d apparently twisted his ankle while running and appeared in serious discomfort before going off. But he returned after Kishan’s dismissal and seemed to continue the latter’s flamboyant stroke-making.

The Decision Review System (DRS) is unavailable for this match.

THE SCORES

India C (1st innings): Ruturaj Gaikwad (not out) 46, Sai Sudharsan c Saini b Mukesh 43, Rajat Patidar b Saini 40, Ishan Kishan b Mukesh 111, Baba Indrajith b Chahar 78, Abishek Porel lbw b Mukesh 12, Manav Suthar (not out) 8; Extras (b-4, lb-5, w-5, nb-5): 19; Total (in 79 overs): 357/5.

Fall of wickets: 1-96, 2-97, 3-286, 4-311, 5-345.

India B bowling: Mukesh 21-3-76-3, Saini 17-2-78-1, Washington 10-0-55-0, Nitish 14-2-58-0, Sai Kishore 12-0-46-0, Rahul Chahar 5-0-35-1.