Shubman Gill led his side from the front, while Mayank Agarwal continued his astounding run-scoring form as the India C Openers smashed spectacular hundreds for India C in a Deodhar Trophy match in Ranchi on Friday.
The openers’ superb batting effort was followed by Jalaj Saxena’s career-best seven-wicket haul, as the trio steered India C into the final of the three-team tournament with a massive 232-run win over India A.
The result knocked out Hanuma Vihari-led India A. It was India A’s second successive defeat in as many days.
India C skipper Gill (143 off 142) and Test opener Agarwal (120 off 111) shared a 226-run stand before a special knock from Suryakumar Yadav (72 not out off 29) propelled the team to 366/3 in 50 overs.
India A were never in the chase and off-spinner Saxena (7/41) ran through their batting line-up with a memorable spell. India C and India B, who beat India A on Thursday, will play the final here on Monday. Before the title clash, they meet each other in the final league game on Saturday.
India C effectively batted India A out of the game with Agarwal and Gill piling up the runs. Gill, who was part of the India Test squad for the home series against South Africa but did not get a game, hammered as many as half a dozen sixes besides 10 fours on way to his highest score in List A cricket (domestic 50-over matches). The Punjab batsman took his time to get going in the early part of his innings but turned on the style in the end overs, before falling seven short of a 150.
The day started with Agarwal in brilliant stroke-making form as he carried his stellar form in Test cricket into the 50-over format, collecting 15 fours and a six. He had made runs in the two matches he played for Karnataka in the Vijay Hazare Trophy knockouts as well.
Following the openers’ double century stand, Mumbai’s Suryakumar got into the act and showed why he is considered as a dangerous white-ball batsman. The Mumbai cricketer clobbered nine fours and four sixes in his exhilarating knock, providing a perfect finish to India C innings. He slammed 55 runs of 14 balls in the last three overs of the innings. Jayadev Unadkar and Siddharth Kaul ended up conceding boundaries galore while R Ashwin was the only bowler to have an economy rate of less than six (1/57).
The batting effort from India A was a disappointing one as Devdutt Padikkal was the only player to cross 30. Dhawal Kulkarni and Ishan Porel picked up the other three wickets while Saxena made a strong statement with his 7-for.