Watch: India Test hopeful Arzan Nagwaswalla clips top of Tilak Varma’s off-stump with inducking beauty in Duleep Trophy final
Watch: West Zone fast bowler Arzan Nagwaswalla bowled a peach to send Tilak Varma’s off-stump cartwheeling in the 2023 Duleep Trophy final.
Tilak Varma’s 40 was the second-highest score, after captain Hanuma Vihari’s 63, in South Zone’s first-innings total of 213 in the 2023 Duleep Trophy final at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. For West Zone, Shams Mulani claimed 3-29.
Vidwath Kaverappa (7-53) then hit back, and despite Prithvi Shaw’s 65 at the top, West Zone collapsed from 97-1 to 146, conceding a first-innings lead of 67.
When South Zone began their innings, a ball from Chintan Gaja kept low and clean bowled Ravikumar Samarth. Coming at one-drop, Tilak made three when Arzan Nagwaswalla came to bowl at him. In the first innings, Nagwaswalla had Tilak caught-behind.
Bowling from over the wicket, left-arm fast bowler Nagwaswalla pitched the ball outside the off-stump. The left-handed Tilak played along the line, but the ball jagged back in, through his defence, to knock the off-stump out of the ground.
Top-quality left-arm fast bowlers are a rarity in contemporary Indian cricket. Nagwaswalla had been part of the Indian squad that toured England in 2021, but he did not get a Test match.
His inclusion in the squad had caused some stir. Had he played, he would have become the first Parsee to play men’s Test cricket for India since Farokh Engineer in 1974/75 (though the Edulji sisters, Behroze and Diana, have played Test cricket for India Women).
The Parsees hold a rich legacy in Indian cricket history. Back in the mid-19th century, they had been the first Indians to take up cricket. They were the first Indian cricket squad to tour England, in 1886, then in 1888. For decades, an Indian Test XI without a Parsee was unthinkable.
In the Duleep Trophy final, Vihari again top-scored with 42, while Ricky Bhui and Washington Sundar made 37 apiece to take South Zone to 230 as Dharmendrasinh Jadeja claimed 5-40.
Nagwaswalla got Mayank Agarwal as well, and finished with 2-68 to complement his first-innings 2-62. He needs to strike thrice more to reach a hundred first-class wickets.
Chasing 298, West Zone were quickly reduced to 18-2. At the time of writing, they were 54-2, with captain Priyank Panchal (33) and Cheteshwar Pujara (9) at the crease.
