Anantapur: Pratham Singh and Tilak Varma notched up their respective centuries while sharing a 104-run stand for the second wicket to put India A in command against India D on day three of the Duleep Trophy second-round match at the Rural Development Trust Stadium on Saturday.
On a day dominated by the batters, efforts of Pratham (122 off 189 balls) and Tilak (111* off 193 balls) along with Shashwat Rawat’s 64 off 88 balls and captain Mayank Agarwal’s 56 on day two helped India A declare their innings at 380/3 in 98 overs, setting India D a huge target of 489.
At stumps, India D reached 62/1 in 19 overs, and need 426 more runs to register an improbable win. Ricky Bhui (44*) and Yash Dubey (15*) steadied the ship for India D till stumps arrived after the early loss of Atharva Taide, who was dismissed by Khaleel Ahmed for the second time in this match.
In the morning, Tilak joined a well-set Pratham at the crease, who continued to be in superb touch by hitting boundaries quickly, and got his century in 149 balls. Tilak too was in great touch at the start by hitting three off-side boundaries quickly, before Saransh Jain gave him a lifeline by dropping his catch.
After Pratham departed post edging to first slip off Saurabh Kumar’s delivery, Tilak took on the scoring mantle and got his fifty in the 65th over, with Riyan Parag giving him good support with a 31-ball 20, before a slog-sweep caused his downfall.
With Rawat looking solid and lending able support en route to his own fifty, Tilak was compact in playing attacking shots to hit his fifth first-class century in 177 balls, as India A declared its innings five minutes after tea break, with the Tilak-Rawat partnership being unbroken at 116 off 174 balls.
India D’s chase was off to a bad start as Taide departed for a five-ball duck after chipping tamely to mid-on off Khaleel’s delivery in the third over. Bhui, promoted to number three, was aggressive in his approach, as he quickly hit five boundaries off Khaleel and Prasidh Krishna.
Bhui then danced down the pitch to hit Shams Mulani for boundaries, even as Dubey held his ground from the other end in their unbroken 60-run stand so far. The duo were also beneficiaries of a dropped chance each before stumps came on a day which clearly belonged to India A.
Brief Scores: India A: 290/10 and 380/3 declared (Pratham Singh 122, Tilak Varma 111*; Saurabh Kumar 2-110) lead India D 183 and 62/1 (Ricky Bhui 44*; Khaleel Ahmed 1-17) by 426 runs. IANS
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