Duleep Trophy: Arshdeep's 6 takes India D to victory

Arshdeep Singh saved his best for the last as he registered career-best figures of 6/40 to help India D outclass India B by 257 runs and end their Duleep Trophy campaign with a consolation victory, at the Rural Development Trust Stadium, Anantapur, on Sunday.

Earlier, India D, who resumed the day on 244/5, ended their second innings at 305, setting India B a stiff target of 373 in 70 overs.

Arshdeep and Aditya Thakare (4/59) then bowled unchanged for 22.2 overs to bundle out Abhimanyu Easwaran-led India B for a lowly 115.

Arshdeep recorded his best match figures of 9/90, with the distinction of getting out India's T20 skipper Suryakumar Yadav (16) twice in the same game.

India B skipper Easwaran fell cheaply as Arshdeep had him caught by Akash Sengupta for 19. Thanks to Nitish Reddy, who swung his bat around for a quickfire 40 off 43 balls, India B managed to cross 100.

As many as India B batters failed to log double digit score as they ended the campaign with seven points from three games, having won their opening match and then getting a point after conceding the first-innings

lead.

India D, who had lost the first two games outright, will finish last despite logging full six points.

Arshdeep, who was pipped by Yash Dayal into the Test squad as the first-choice left-arm pacer, certainly made an impression as he got to move the ball away from the right-handers and bowled the ideal length to trouble the top-order.

At the start of the day, Ricky Bhui (119) duly completed his second ton of the tournament and remained not out, having faced only 125 balls. He hit 15 fours and three maximums in the process.

In the morning session, India D batted for 14.3 overs to add another 61 runs to their total as Bhui scored his second successive hundred.

With scores of 56 and 119, the former India Under-19 skipper was named Player of the Match.

Brief Scores: India D 349 and 305 in 58.3 overs (Ricky Bhui 119, Shreyas Iyer 50, Mukesh Kumar 4/98) vs India B 282 and 115 in 22.2 overs (Arshdeep Singh 6/40).

Result: India D won by 257 runs.