Madhya Pradesh 112 for 3 (Dubey 53*, Gawli 47, Saini 2-15) course Rest of India 484 (Jaiswal 213, Easwaran 154, Avesh 4-74) with 372 runs
In response to the Rest of India (RoI) huge total of 484, Madhya Pradesh got off to a shaky start, as Mukesh struck in the first inning to drive Arham Aquil back for a duck. In the next over, Saini caused a thick outside edge of Himanshu Mantri’s bat, with Dhull taking a superb catch at second slip. It wasn’t long before Shubham Sharma headed back to the pavilion after Saini pinned him up front, leaving Madhya Pradesh reeling at 15 for 3.
Gawli and Dubey then came together to stand up to the RoI bowlers, who had to toil for the rest of the day with no rewards. After a watchful start, the pair managed to hit some boundaries to build the score. Dubey also brought up his half-century with a four from Saini to the back. At stumps, Madhya Pradesh had reached 112 for 3, with Gawli at 47 and Dubey at 53.
At one point RoI cruised towards 500 with Dhull strong on one end. But with the dismissal of Upendra Yadav, RoI lost their last five wickets for 18 runs. Left arm spinner Kumar Kartikeya cleared Upendra for 14 before Agarwal left Atit Sheth for a duck on the stroke of lunch. Kartikeya then claimed the main scalp from Dhull, who played the wrong line to get slapped on his back pad. Saini and Pulkit Narang then achieved three combined boundaries to take the total to 484 before Avesh Khan (4 for 74) struck back-to-back to end proceedings.
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