Vihari, Nadeem and Markande star in India B's big win

An unbeaten 87 from Hanuma Vihari and three top-order wickets from Shahbaz Nadeem helped India B make a winning start to their Deodhar Trophy campaign, as they defended 261 to beat India A by 43 runs. Nadeem, the left-arm spinner, took the new ball and struck with successive balls in his second over to send back Prithvi Shaw and Karun Nair, both lbw.

India A's top order continued to flounder until R Ashwin joined Dinesh Karthik at 87 for 5. The Tamil Nadu pair added 123 to bring parity back to the contest: at one stage, India A needed 52 from 47 balls with five wickets in hand.

But Mayank Markande broke the partnership, having Ashwin stumped for 54 (76b, 5x4), and Nadeem dismissed Karthik in the very next over, having him caught and bowled one short of a hundred. Karthik's 114-ball innings contained 11 fours and a six.

India A's lower order then collapsed against the legspin of Markande, who finished with figures of 4 for 48. The last five wickets only added eight runs to India A's total.

Ashwin had a good match with the ball too, finishing with figures of 2 for 39 in nine overs as India B, who chose to bat first, limped to 261 for 8 after threatening to post a much bigger total. Forties from Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer set up Vihari and Manoj Tiwary (52, 58b, 1x4, 2x6) to put on 99 for the fourth wicket. At one stage, India B were 194 for 3 with 12.4 overs remaining.

The run-out dismissal of Tiwary, however, sparked a collapse. No one from No. 6 downwards got into double figures even as Vihari tried to keep the scoreboard moving at the other end. Following Tiwary's dismissal, Vihari scored 39 off 30 balls to finish unbeaten on 87 (95b, 9x4). At the other end, India B's lower order and extras combined to score only 28 off 45 balls. Even so, India B's total of 261 for 8 proved more than adequate.