The Indian cricket team defeated Derbyshire by seven wickets in the T20 practice match played yesterday. Playing first, Derbyshire scored 150 runs for the loss of 8 wickets. In response to which, the Indian team won by 7 wickets and with still 3 overs remaining to be played. Deepak Hooda played a brilliant innings of 59 runs, while Dinesh Karthik was named India’s captain for the match.
Much discussion has been going on ever since then as to why Dinesh Karthik was named India, even when there was presence of Hardik Pandya in the squad, who led the team in the T20I series against Ireland.
However, there is nothing much to worried about. Dinesh Karthik was named the captain of the team due to give some rest to Hardik Pandya and some other experienced campaigners like Bhuvneshwar Kumar.
As for the match, losing the toss, Derbyshire did not have a good start and in the very first over, Axar Patel dismissed Lewis Reece. Captain Shan Masood was dismissed later in the fourth over by Arshdeep Singh and Leus du Plooy was also dismissed soon after for the total score of 43 runs in the sixth over.
Wayne Madsen scored 28 runs in 19 balls, but he also returned to the pavilion at 61 in the ninth over. Hilton Cartwright scored 27 runs, but the team was dealt a big blow when he was dismissed for the total of 88 runs in the 13th over.
At the end, Derbyshire ended their inning for 150 runs with India’s Umran Malik and Arshdeep Singh taking 2 wickets each.
Chasing the target, India scored 151 runs in 16.4 overs for the loss of 3 wickets. In-form Deepak Hooda scored 59 runs while Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav added 38 and 36 runs respectively.
After this emphatic win over Derbyshire, India will next play Northamptonshire in the 2nd practice match before the main series commences against England on the 7th July.
