Mumbai’s spin-bowling all-rounders Shams Mulani (3-117) and Tanush Kotian (4-73) picked seven wickets together to help India ‘A’ beat India ‘D’ by 186 runs in the Duleep Trophy second-round match at Anantapur on Sunday.

Left-arm spinner Mulani scored 89 and stitched an invaluable 91-run seventh wicket partnership with Kotian (53) when their India ‘A’ were struggling at 144-6 in the first innings. He credited Kotian for his valuable contribution. “Whenever we have played for Mumbai, we have taken wickets in partnerships, and also contributed runs [with the bat]. We always communicate well with each other and I think that has been the key to our good performance as we shared our experiences throughout this game,” Mulani told mid-day on Sunday.    
 
Mulani accounted for three crucial India ‘D’ wickets — skipper Shreyas Iyer (41), Sanju Samson (40) and Devdutt Padikkal (1) on Sunday. He explained how he worked out the dismissal of his Mumbai teammate Iyer. “We know each other’s game quite well as we have been playing together since childhood. Considering his [Iyer] aggressive nature, I was just trying to vary my line and length. He tried to play the pull off the back foot, missed my arm ball and got clean bowled,” said Mulani.