Wanted to send Harshit, Arshdeep fresh to Asia Cup: North Zone skipper Ankit Kumar

When Arshdeep Singh and Harshit Rana travel to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to play the Asia Cup later this month, they will have to thank North Zone batsmen – skipper Ankit Kumar, Yash Dhull and Ayush Badoni – for ensuring that they had to bowl much lesser than they would have.

North Zone, having taken 175-run first innings lead over East Zone in their Duleep Trophy match played at BCCI Centre of Excellence Ground 1 in Bengaluru, batted for almost two full days to not just pound the East Zone bowling attack led by Test paceman Mohammed Shami but also give sufficient rest to Arshdeep and Harshit, who are part of the Indian team that plays Asia Cup beginning on September 9.

After North Zone were bowled out for 405 in 93.2 overs thanks to half-centuries from Ayush Badoni (63) and wicketkeeper-batsman Kanhaiya Wadhawan (76), East Zone bowlers dismissed East Zone for 230 in 56.1 overs. Arshdeep took 1/51 in 17 overs while Harshit returned with 2/56 in 14 overs.

However, pace bowler Auqib Nabi was the star as he took 5/28 in 10.1 overs.

He took four wickets on four deliveries, including a hat-trick on the last three balls of the innings’ 53rd over. That spell broke East’s back and from 222/5 they were reduced to 223/9. Nabi was adjudged Man of the Match.

“Since we had taken the first innings lead, our plan was to extend the lead as much as we could. We wanted to seal the match on the third day, which we did. Yash and I talked about that only – play as long as possible.  Everyone applied themselves and batted. We didn’t play fancy shots, we stuck to the process. That is why we were successful. We batted with basics,” said captain Ankit Kumar, who stepped in after the original captaincy choice Shubman Gill had to withdraw reportedly due to illness before the match.

“We had two full days. We wanted to bat for two days. Since Harshit and Arshdeep were going for India duty, we wanted to send them fresh. They had already bowled 15-16 overs in the first innings. We didn’t want them to bowl these many overs.”

Ankit had captained Haryana in the season gone-by. 

“I used to think that captaincy is tough but when I led Haryana this season I realised that it is not that tough. I used my instincts like I did for Haryana. I decided not to take undue pressure.”

Ankit said that they had planned everyone would chip in as per their ability.   

“You saw that in the first innings, everyone contributed. No one threw away their wicket. We made 400 thanks to that.”

Brief Scores

North Zone 405 all out in 93.2 overs (Ayush Badoni 63, Kanhaiya Wadhawan 76, Manishi 6/111) and 658/4 declared (Ayush Badoni 204 not out, Yash Dhull 133, Ankit Kumar 198) win on first innings against East Zone 230 all out in 56.1 overs (Virat Singh 69, Auqib Nabi 5/28, Harshit Rana 2/56)

Tags : Harshit Rana, Arshdeep Singh, Auqib Nabi, Duleep Trophy, Bengaluru, North Zone