Musheer Khan makes century while Rahane hits 73, as hosts have one hand on coveted domestic title.
Standing at slip, Shreyas Iyer takes a mock guard between deliveries and shadow-bats. A block, a drive, a pull.
The rest walk towards the drinks during a break. But Iyer races towards the batting crease. He shadow-bats. Pull, punch, repeat.
Musheer Khan and Ajinkya Rahane are grinding it out. Iyer, the next batsman, is in the dugout. Shadow-batting, bouncing the ball on his bat, checking his defence.
When he finally gets a chance, Iyer doesn’t walk in to bat. He sprints to the middle. He bats like a man in a tearing hurry. It doesn’t go with the innings’ flow; Musheer Khan bats 474 minutes for his 136 runs (326 balls).
Iyer’s break-neck innings is among the more assured ones he’s played in a while. But when he is on 95, seemingly destined for a statement century, Iyer does the peak Iyer thing: going for a needless glory shot, mishitting it and getting caught at long off.
