Duleep Trophy | Twitter buzzes as Akash Deep gets trapped in Pant, Musheer, and Saini’s 'Bermuda Triangle'

ByArijit Kundu, SportsCafe Editor

09/08/2024

A herd of wolves can skillfully coordinate their hunting strategies, working together to take down prey much larger than themselves. While Akash Deep is not renowned for his batting flair his resilience kept India B toiling until the witty strategy of Rishabh Pant, Navdeep Saini, and Musheer Khan.

India B could add only 34 runs in the morning session of the last day of the 2024 Duleep Trophy opener at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, leaving the India A side to chase down 274 runs for a win. Despite piling up quick fifty runs in 40 balls, the Shubman Gill-led unit lost four wickets for 76 by Lunch. With the pacers picking up quick wickets, KL Rahul was stranded with minimum assistance from the other hand before the local boy succumbed in the 40th over. With a couple of more wickets down, India B needed just one wicket to win but Akash Deep’s resilience kept them toiling for long until the smart strategizing from Pant, Musheer, and Navdeep.

After the fifth ball of the 53rd over, Pant was caught in the stump mic saying, “Bhaiya Bouncer marenge isko”, which means attempt a bouncer against him. Following the instructions of his Statemate, the pacer bowled short and the batter was caught off guard trying to stonewall it without much feet movement. Akash got a thud at the helmet, resulting him in losing poise and getting forward only to realise that Musheer at short leg picked gathered the red rock and made a direct hit before he could dive back in. Following the TV umpire’s intervention it was confirmed that Akash missed to get home, resulting in India B’s 76-run triumph in the first round.

The series of play from Pant’s stump mic to Musheer’s presence of mind was thoroughly enjoyed by the Twitterverse as they flooded with comments.

Trapped well

Rishabh Pant : “Bahiya Bouncer marenge isko”

Saini Bowled a bouncer & Akash couldn't handle it, Musheer Khan ran him out.

INDIA B WIN 💥
— PantMP4. (@indianspirit070)

Sure thing

Akash Deep surely makes India’s BGT squad
— Teeps (@teeps1921)

Hierarchy

My test bowler's hierarchy

Bumrah

Shami

Siraj

Akashdeep ( only in Asia )

Avesh

Harshit

Prasidh

Arshdeep

Dayal

Khaleel

Mukesh
— Hrithik (@Hrithik__Pandey)

Fourth

Who should be Team India 4th pacer in BGT?

-Akash Deep

-Arshdeep Singh

-Mayank Yadav

-Umran Malik

-Nitish Kumar Reddy
— 𝓶𝓮𝓜𝓮𝓻𝓪𝓳 (@_meMeraj)

The list

Good pace, handy height and built. Yudhvir was unlucky to not get into LSG's XI this year. I hope he makes an impression among the Indian batters. Yudhvir, Dayal, Simarjeet, Saini, Mohsin, Arshdeep, Akash Deep, Mavi, Khaleel, Avesh to name a few. So many pace options! 🥶🙃
— Vivek._.M (@Viv666viV)

With both ball and bat

When Akash Deep - who seems very effective with both ball and bat- is around, why does our selection committee keep persisting with Khaleel Ahmed & Avesh Khan?
— P G Bhaskar 🇮🇳 (@BhaskarPG)

Looking promising

saini and akash deep are looking promising contenders again for bgt. But i have a feeling that yash dayal could be an option. Wdyf?
— Virender Parasariya (@parasariyav)

Incredible talent