Easwaran's Unyielding Performance Keeps India B Afloat Despite Anshul Kamboj's Five-for Havoc

Anantapur, India B opener Abhimanyu Easwaran displayed unwavering confidence as he notched up a resilient century, leading his team to a total of 309 for 7 against India C. Despite Easwaran's impressive innings, India C seemed poised to enforce a follow-on in their Duleep Trophy match held here on Saturday.

Despite Easwaran's unbeaten 143, India B trail India C by 216 runs and require 66 more runs to avoid a follow-on with just three wickets in hand.

India C had scored a mammoth 525 in their first innings with Ishan Kishan scoring a century.

The Day 3 of the tie belonged to the India B skipper, who scored a patient 262-ball 143 amid a procession of wickets with India C pacer Anshul Kamboj's five-wicket haul bringing Easwaran's team on its knees.

Undaunted by the fall of wickets at the other end, Bengal batter Easwaran kept frustrating the India C bowlers, though he still has work to do on Sunday to avoid a follow-on.

Commencing the day at 124 for no loss with Easwaran and Narayan Jagadeesan holding fort, India B were rattled quite early when Kamboj struck in only the fourth over of the morning session.

The 23-year-old Haryana pacer, who had played a few matches for Mumbai Indians in the IPL last season, got rid of the dangerous Jagadeesan who added just three runs to his personal score, getting the Tamil Nadu batter caught by wicket-keeper Abhishek Porel for 70, thus breaking the 129-run partnership.

Kamboj then had brothers Musheer and Sarfaraz Khan cheaply for 1 and 16 runs respectively before accounting for hard-hitter Rinku Singh and Nithis Kumar Reddy to completely destabilise India B.

At 194 for 5, things looked bleak for Easwaran's side, but the skipper took it upon himself to shore up his side amid some hostile bowling by Kamboj. He stitched together a 43-run partnership with Washington Sundar and then a 46-run stand with Sai Kishore to repair the damage.

At stumps, Rahul Chahar was giving Easwaran company but with just three wickets left, it could be a difficult task for India B to avoid a follow-on.

India C skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad could even decide against enforcing a follow-on, given tomorrow is the last day of the contest and they are assured of three vital points on the basis of first innings lead.

However, if Gaikwad enforces the follow-on and wins the match, his team will earn six points.

Brief Score:

India C: 525 all in 124.1 overs vs India B: 309 for 7 in 101 overs .

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.