India A Vs Australia A match: Jurel’s unbeaten ton puts India A in comfortable position
Right-hander Jurel was at his best on Thursday as he raced to 100 in 115 balls with the help of nine fours and three sixes
Young keeper-batter Dhruv Jurel always looks for an opportunity and tries to live up to the expectations with perfection. When he was asked to keep the wicket in place of an injured Rishabh Pant during the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy during the five-match test series in England, he did his best there.
He repeated this act in at least two Tests during the tour and got to play just the last Test, where his valuable 53 runs, including 34 in the second innings, at The Oval helped the Shubman Gill-led side draw the Test series at 2-2.
Jurel’s performance wasn’t a fluke at all as before coming to the Test series, the Agra-boy struck three half centuries against England Lions for India in England itself and staked his claim for a berth in the Test side. Now, this 24-year-old cricketer has established himself as a dependable cricketer for Team India, especially in Test cricket.
Jurel, who led India to the Under-19 Asia Cup title in Sri Lanka in 2019, on Thursday staked his claim for a berth in the Team India for the upcoming two-Test home series against West Indies next month, hammering a sparking unbeaten century for India A against visiting Australia A on the penultimate day of the first four-day unofficial Test here.
Right-hander Jurel, who missed the Duleep Trophy matches for Central Zone after falling ill early this month, was at his best on Thursday as he raced to 100 in 115 balls with the help of nine fours and three sixes.
He finished the day with an unbeaten 113 off 132 balls with the help of 10 boundaries and four sixes while adding an unbeaten 181-run for the fifth wicket with Devdutt Padikkal, who also remained unbeaten on 178-ball 86 with the help of eight boundaries as India A scored 403/4 in 103 overs in reply to Australia A’s 532/6 declared. India A still needs 130 runs to go past Australia A’s first innings total with five wickets in hand.
In fact, Jurel and Padikkal made full use of the red clay turf here at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium. While Padikkal was a bit slow in rotating the strike, Jurel scored at a brisk pace at a strike rate of 85.61. His recent experience of leading the Gorakhpur Lions at this venue in the third edition of the UPTwenty20 League also helped him in reading the deliveries well.
Earlier, resuming at the overnight score of 116/1, India A didn’t get a good start on Day Three as opener Narayan Jagadeesan could add just 14 runs to his score to get out for 64, which came off 113 balls with the help of seven fours and a six before being caught by keeper Josh Philippe off Xavier Bartlett.
But thereafter, Team India regular B Sai Sudarshan along with the other overnight batter Devdutt Padikkal continued to hammer Australia A bowlers all around the ropes and added 76 runs for the third wicket. Sudarshan struck his seventh half-century in first class cricket before being trapped in front of the wicket by left-arm spinner Copper Connolly while playing his favourite sweep shot. His 124-ball 73 was studded with 10 boundaries.
Everyone looked excited when skipper Shreyas Iyer made it to the ground, but he remained in the middle for a brief period, scoring just eight runs in 13 balls before being adjudged leg before wicket off Connolly. In fact, Iyer tried to play on the backfoot and failed to bring his bat in the line of the ball quickly.
However, Iyer’s wicket left a handful of spectators shocked, but Jurel and Padikkal then kept the scoreboard ticking on at a good pace as the two remained unbeaten till the end. For the third consecutive day, the start of the match was delayed by two hours. The second and final match between the two sides will be played at this venue from September 23 before the one-day series, which starts on September 30, at Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium.
