Where Vaibhav Suryavanshi failed… Rituraj Gaikwad’s bat played there, scored a powerful century

The first match of the tri-series between India-A and Sri Lanka-A is being played in Dambulla. Rituraj Gaikwad has played a brilliant century innings in this match. Rituraj, who looked in very poor form in IPL 2026, has scored 101 runs in 114 balls. This is the 21st century of his List-A career. Rituraj stepped onto the crease at a time when the opening pair of young sensation Vaibhav Suryavanshi and Prabhsimran Singh had returned to the pavilion at just 16 runs.

Vaibhav, who batted stormily in IPL 2026, was out after scoring 14 runs in 12 balls. Whereas Prabhasimran could score only 2 runs after playing 11 balls. Rituraj, who came to bat in a difficult situation, took charge along with Priyansh Arya and rescued India-A from the initial shock by making a partnership of 53 runs for the third wicket. The pair broke due to the unfortunate run out of Priyansh (32).

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Fourth List-A century in India-A jersey

After Priyansh returned to the pavilion, Rituraj got the support of captain Tilak Verma. Both of them made a partnership of 150 runs for the fourth wicket. Meanwhile, Ruturaj completed his fourth List-A century for India-A in 112 balls. However, soon after this he became the victim of Vanujaa Sahan. He hit 6 fours and 3 sixes in his innings. As soon as Rituraj was out, Tilak also left. Tilak played a slow innings of 60 runs in 97 balls.

Shedge’s stormy innings

Despite Ruturaj’s century, the Indian team did not seem to be able to reach a fighting score as Tilak batted at a strike rate of only 61.85. At the time of Tilak’s dismissal, India’s score was 225/5 in 45 overs. From here, Suryansh Shedge scored unbeaten 26 runs in 14 balls, taking India to 276 runs at the loss of 6 wickets. Ayush Badoni contributed 24 runs in 18 balls.

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Playing XI of both the teams

India-A: Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Tilak Verma (captain), Ayush Badoni, Suryansh Shedge, Arshad Khan, Vipraj Nigam, Anukul Roy, Anshul Kamboj.

Sri Lanka-A: Niroshan Dickwella, Avishka Fernando, Nuwanidu Fernando, Sadira Samarawickrama, Chamika Karunaratne, Ravindu Fernando, Sahan Arachige (Captain), Vanuja Sahan, Vijayakanth Viakanth, Mohammad Shiraj, Garuka Sanket