Duleep Trophy: Arshdeep Singh proves red-ball credentials with 6-wkt haul as India D thrash India | Cricket News
In the tiny patio of the India D dressing room, Arshdeep Singh sought a marker to inscribe his match figures on the ball. A scorer passing flung him one — he verified if it was not red — and hurriedly scrawled the sweet labour of the day on the ragged leather. It read: 11.2-3-40-6, and then read the numbers again with glowing eyes. Arshdeep waved at the horde of admirers waiting for him and vanished into the box-shaped dressing room, saying apologetically that he was tired, but with a relieved smile. As an afterthought, he turned back and said: “It’s a reward for my efforts with the red ball. I will never forget it.”
The left-arm pacer was too drained to compose a metre-perfect couplet — which he might do after an ice bath and rest in his hotel room — and dealt in platitudes. But for eighty-odd minutes, in an unbroken spell, he made the ball sing devilish tunes, helping his side inflict a 257-run defeat over an India B side that boasted the batting riches of Suryakumar Yadav, Abhimanyu Easwaran and Washington Sundar.
It was as much as about the destination, regering his career-best figures in the long format that he is resolute to prove his worth in, as the journey. It was his pot of gold at the end of harrowing shifts under the merciless Anantapur sun. When Arshdeep began his post-noon spell, the trees, bereft of any breeze, stood numb like statues. The squad players would scamper around the ground to keep the bowlers rehydrated. Between overs, Arshdeep and his accomplice Aditya Thakare sprawled on the ground. But they were in the middle of such an inspired spell that they would have killed themselves rather than let them be hauled out of the attack.
Arshdeep Singh during Duleep Trophy match. (BCCI X account)
When Arshdeep jiggered into his brling run-up, like the rhythmic beats of bhangra that he often broke into after picking a wicket, he radiated a fresh and wild energy, as if he were bowling his first over, as though a burning streak of ambition was fuelling to rise above conditions and exhaustion. Whether he is in India’s long-form schemes or not for the Australia tour, he is expending every ounce of his physical and cerebral energy to exhibit his red-ball viability. A left-arm seamer is an eternally coveted jewel, but his first-class numbers (54 wickets at 30 in 18 games with a lone five-for before the game) don’t flatter.
Rather than a question of skills, it was about the intangibles – like whether he could bowl long spells and sustain the intensity and discipline on exacting days, whether he could produce a wicket from nowhere, whether he could influence games on unresponsive pitches; the little tics that gets buried in the numbers, the little nuggets that selectors look for before picking a player.
Doing the hard yards
In this endeavour, Arshdeep made giant strides. Throughout the two innings, he unpeeled multiple layers of his bowling. He displayed he is capable of red-ball mischief on unfriendly surfaces. He moved the ball both ways in different stages of the match. He moved the ball into the right-handers (a delicious in-swinger nailed Musheer Khan in the first innings) from over the stumps and held it off the pitch from around the stumps at brisk pace. He interchanged his lengths (he foxed Suyash Prabhudessai with a clever change in length), slipped in the odd cutter (that foxed Surya) and extracted bounce from the dozy pitch (a sharp short ball hurried Easwaran into a miscued pull).
Arshdeep’s duels with Surya engrossed, and were layered with an undertone of banter. After dismissing him in the first innings, he lurked around Surya’s dressing room and playfully shouted: “Aise khelna tha woh delivery (that’s how you should have played that delivery),” and imitated the shot he got out to with exaggerated flourishes. Surya just kept laughing.
In the second innings, he sliced the left-armer over point with splendorous wrs. Both exchanged a smile and Arshdeep gestured to himself with his palms that he should have bowled closer to the stumps. There is a larrikin spirit about him, but a serious no-nonsense cricketing mind too. The combination makes him a loved as well as valued cricketer. He is both bhangra and jazz.
The next ball was indeed closer and the Mumbai batsman stabbed and missed. Sanju Samson behind the stumps, enhancing the theatre, squealed that the batsman was not deciphering the ball. Arshdeep cleverly played with his lines, slanting the ball across before making it hold the line after pitching. He switched to around the wicket and then back to over the wicket. The ball that ejected Surya was not spectacular, a full-ish and leg-side bound cutter. But his stock line was outside the off-stump and Surya was imbalanced when flicking. The ball came slower off the surface and the batsman with the 360-degree oeuvre ended up miscuing one of his fail-safe strokes.
The wicket plunged India D into the slope of doom. Thereafter, the only race was between Arshdeep and Thakare, with his immaculate accuracy, for the fifth-wicket haul. Arshdeep reached first with the scalp of Navdeep Saini, but thereafter began to bowl wide so that Thakare could buy his fifth too. But Mukesh Kumar spoiled the plan with a wild heave. But Thakare was the first to lock his bowling partner in an embrace.
“He is a great guy to bowl with. Lots of fun and learning,” Thakare said later. Immediately after the wicket, Arshdeep almost snatched the ball from the umpire and clasped it close to his heart.
Brief Scores:
India D 349 (Samson 106, Bhui 56; Saini 5-74) and 305 (Bhui 119*; Mukesh 4-98, Saini 3-58) beat India B 282 (Easwaran 116, Washington 87; Saurabh 5-73) and 115 (Nitish 40*; Arshdeep 6-40, Thakare 4-59) 257 runs.
