Madhya Pradesh 112 by 3 (Dubey 53*, Gawli 47, Saini 2-15) route Rest of India 484 (Jaiswal 213, Easwaran 154, Avesh 4-74) for 372 runs
Responding to the massive Rest of India (RoI) total of 484, Madhya Pradesh got off to a shaky start as Mukesh struck in the first for Arham Aquil to close in for a duck. In the next over, Saini induced a thick outside edge of Himanshu Mantri’s bat with Dhull on the second slip taking an excellent catch. It wasn’t long before Shubham Sharma was back in the arena after Saini pinned him up front, leaving Madhya Pradesh reeling on 15 for 3.
Gawli and Dubey then teamed up to resist the RoI players, who were forced to work hard without rewards for the rest of the day. After an attentive start, the pair managed to hit some limits to increase the score. Dubey also brought out his half century with a four from Saini to point back. On stumps, Madhya Pradesh had reached 112 for 3, with Gawli on 47 and Dubey on 53.
At one point the RoI was sailing towards 500 with Dhull strengthening at one end. But with the sacking of Upendra Yadav, RoI lost their last five wickets for 18 runs. Left-arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya cleared Upendra for 14 before Agarwal caught Atit Sheth for a duck to lunch strike. Kartikeya then claimed the key scalp from Dhull, who played the wrong line to get hit on his back pad. Saini and Pulkit Narang then hit a combined cap three to bring the total to 484 before Avesh Khan (4-for-74) struck in a row to end the process.
