Ton-up Fazal, pacers help India A clinch Deodhar Trophy in style

Riding on a patient century from opener Faiz Fazal and some fine performances from the pacers, India A lifted the Deodhar Trophy, after they demolished India B by 87 runs in the final here on Friday.

Batting first, India A scored a healthy 286 for seven in 50 overs, thanks to an opening stand of 162 between Fazal (100) and Test specialist Murali Vijay (69).

During the later part of the innings, another India discard Kedar Jadhav struck a quikfire 58 off 39 balls to prop up the score.

Fazal and Vijay batted for more than 31 overs during their partnership. The Vidarbha captain hit nine boundaries and three sixes — one each of Pawan Negi, Karn Sharma and Baba Aparajith.

Vijay was more patient playing 91 balls for his 69, with three fours and equal number of sixes.

In reply, India B were all out for 199 in 40.4 overs with Krishna Das (2/32), Sreenath Aravind (2/43) and Shardul Thakur (2/47) sharing the bulk of the spoils.

Left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem (3/36) then polished off the tail with only all-rounder Stuart Binny scoring a respectable 60.

India B practically lost the match within the 15th over, as half their team was back in the hut for 54 runs.

Skipper Unmukt Chand (8), Mayank Agarwal (3), Shreyas Iyer (24), Bapa Aparajith (0) and Dinesh Karthik (12) were back due to some fine bowling by Krishna and Aravind, who accounted for four of the first five wickets.

Suryakumar Yadav (45) and Binny added 62 runs for the sixth wicket but that was never going to be enough in the long run.

Sharma blasted three sixes in the end but that could not prevent his side from ending on the losing side.

Brief scores: India A: 286/7 (Faiz Fazal 100, Murali Vijay 69, Kedar Jadhav 58 n.o.; Dhawal Kulkarni 2-31, Nathu Singh 2-58) bt India B: 199 all out in 40.4 overs (Stuart Binny 60, Suryakumar Yadav 45, Karn Sharma 28; Shahbaz Nadeem 3-36, Krishna Das 2-32, Srinath Arvind 2-43, Shardul Thakur 2-47).