Duleep Trophy 2024: Shreyas Iyer scores stunning half-century in Anantapur

In the ongoing match of the Duleep Trophy 2024, trailing by four runs, India D had the worst possible start when Yash Dubey walked off early with only 13 runs on the board. But that certainly didn’t keep star India player Shreyas Iyer under the pressure from playing his free-flowing knock. Despite a failure in the first innings, where he could manage only nine runs, Iyer was seen batting aggressively, with a stunning drive to get off the mark. He stepped up in the next over against Vyshak Vijaykumar when he slogged him for a six in the long-on region as well. 

Shreyas Iyer returned to form

However, Shreyas Iyer kept hitting all over the park. He hit through the third-man region for another four before doing the same again through the midwicket, racing to 18 off just 9 balls as well. While Iyer did slow down a bit in between, his approach remained the same throughout his stay in the middle, with an eye on taking on the ‘relatively’ inexperienced bowling unit as well. 

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Himanshu Chauhan also failed to restrict Iyer, who smashed four boundaries off Chauhan’s first eight deliveries that he faced as well. However, it was against Chauhan when the star batter brought up his 50, which came off a 39-ball - one of the fastest fifty in Duleep Trophy history. However, Shreyas Iyer used the long-on region quite well, with 35% of his runs coming in that region. Meanwhile, 46% of his runs came in the off-side region as well, where he hit both square and in the third-man region also. 

Shreyas Iyer set the foundation with a fifty

Notably, he didn't score a single run in the square leg region despite facing a few short balls as well. However, Shreyas Iyer couldn't use the great start to score a big knock as his knock came to an end when he hit a delivery from Anshul Kamboj straight to the safe hands of Gaikwad, who was standing in the long-off as well. However, his blistering fifty (54 off 44) with 9 fours and a six will surely help his side to post a decent total.