Rishabh Pant’s much-awaited return to red-ball cricket lasted a mere 10 balls and 15 minutes but Musheer Khan’s resolute unbeaten hundred carried India B to 202/7 against India A on the opening day of the four-day Duleep Trophy contest here on Thursday.

Before Musheer (105 batting off 227b, 10x4, 2x6) and Navdeep Saini (29 batting off 74b, 4x4, 1x6) fought back for India B with a 108-run stand for the eighth wicket, they were struggling at 94/7.

But the 19-year-old Musheer, younger brother of Sarfaraz Khan (9), saved his side from a total collapse with an innings of rare maturity.

The right-hander entered the field at No. 3 in the 14th over after the fall of Abhimanyu Easwaran.

Musheer nullified appreciable bounce besides carry and movement for the India A pacers, who operated for a large part of the day.

But Musheer, who is making his Duleep debut, tackled each of those difficulties in his own way — his walking down the track to nullify the movement was a rather curious sight. It was unconventional but very effective on the day.

Axar excels

In Anantapur, Axar Patel brought India D back into the game with a counter-attacking 86 following a disastrous start before picking up two timely wickets against India C on the opening day.

India C pacers Anshul Kamboj (2/47) and Vijaykumar Vyshak (3/19) made use of a helping pitch to run through the India D batting, leaving them in a desperate state at 48/6.

Axar began cautiously before going ballistic to make 86 off 118 balls. India C were 91/4 at stumps.

Summarised scores

In Bengaluru: India B 202/7 in 79 overs (Yashasvi Jaiswal 30, Musheer Khan 105 batting; Khaleel Ahmed 2/39, Akash Deep 2/28, Avesh Khan 2/42) vs India A.

In Anantapur: India D 164 all out in 48.3 overs (Axar Patel 86; Vijaykumar Vyshak 3/19). India C 91/4 (Abhishek Porel 32 batting; Axar Patel 2/16).

Written with PTI inputs