Red take the stranglehold

India Red put on a mammoth target. India Green decided to take the fight to them. Their counter-attack began on a blistering pace before Kuldeep Yadav wreaked havoc with his chinaman deliveries and put Red on road to victory in Duleep Trophy league match on Thursday.

After Red posted an intimidating target of 497, Green flew off the blocks. Led by Robin Uthappa’s 66-ball 72, Green batsmen boldly went for boundaries but couldn’t continue in the same vein once Yadav (5/55) entered the scene. It was local boy's maiden five-wicket haul in first class cricket and doused any hopes Greens had to save the first domestic match played with the pink ball.

Beginning the day at 344/3, Red had everything going their way despite the early dismissal of Abhinav Mukund (169). Gurkeerat Singh’s 82 and late blows from Anureet Singh (33 not out) swelled their second innings total to 486.
 
With more than a session remaining in the day, Green were reduced to 217/7 and trailed by 280 runs at stumps on day three with captain Suresh Raina (42 n.o.) waging a lone battle in the company of Ashok Dinda (10).

Things, however, looked different when Uthappa and Jalaj Saxena constructed their opening stand of 66. With seamer Nathu Singh, who took six wickets in the first innings, going wayward with the new ball, Uthappa and Saxena went comfortably for their strokes. Ishwar Pandey provided the breakthrough when his delivery came back and Saxena, who was looking to  cut, dragged it onto his leg-stump.

Uthappa, though, batted uninhibited. The crowd attendance increased under the lights and Uthappa with delightful stroke-play and footwork offered them plenty to cheer about.  
Ahead of the final session, Uthappa and Parthiv Patel had taken Green to 72/1 and continued in the same vein post the break. Uthappa brought up his half century with a boundary and with Parthiv matching his urgency, it nearly appeared to be a limited-overs contest. Yadav, though, didn’t allow the partnership to prolong further with his twin blows within two balls.

His well-flighted delivery straightened out and Uthappa coming forward to defend nicked for Yuvraj to complete a low catch at slips. Uthappa’s replacement Rajat Paliwal was out for duck, caught plumb lbw. Kuldeep returned to dismiss Parthiv with a peach of a delivery that trapped him leg before.

Raina and Saurabh Tiwary attempted to stem the rot with their 54-run partnership for the fifth wicket but Kuldeep struck again. Tiwary fumbled in reading the length of the delivery, waited and then pushed back a bit to play across, but was plumb in front.

Within three overs, Anureet sent back Shreyas Gopal, who was caught behind, before Kuldeep found his fifth victim in Sandeep Sharma to put Red closer to victory. 

Earlier, Mukund could add only seven more to his overnight score of 162 after he edged Dinda. Gurkeerat dominated the off-side region, and laced it with sweetly-timed cover drives. He looked poised to reach the three-figure mark but leggie Shreyas (5/123), who was the pick of Green bowlers, tossed up a beauty and Grkeerat stepping out to defend it, was stumped.

His dismissal allowed Green to speedily pack off Red but by then the damage was done.
DH News Service


score board
INDIA RED (I innings): 161
INDIA GREEN (I innings): 151
INDIA RED (II innings; O/n: 344/3): KS Bharat b Rajpoot 20 (20b, 2x4, 1x6), Abhinav Mukund c Tiwary b Dinda 169 (221b, 20x4), Sudip Chatterjee lbw Shreyas 114 (182b, 14x4), Yuvraj Singh c&b Saxena 10 (18b, 1x4, 1x6), Gurkeerat Singh st Patel b Gopal 82 (96b, 13x4, 1x6), KB Arun Karthik lbw Shreyas 14 (27b, 1x4, 1x6), Kuldeep Yadav c Sandeep b Ojha 28 (62b, 4x4), Akshay Wakhare lbw Shreyas 0 (7b), Anureet Singh (not out) 33 (54b, 2x4, 3x6), Ishwar Pandey b Ojha 0 (3b), Nathu Singh b Shreyas 6 (12b, 1x6). Extras (B-7, LB-2, NB-1) 10. Total (all out, 116.5 overs) 486.    
      
Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Bharat), 2-279 (Chatterjee), 3-300 (Yuvraj), 4-370 (Mukund), 5-404 (Karthik), 6-425 (Gurkeerat), 7-431 (Wakhare), 8-480 (Kuldeep), 9-480 (Pandey).

Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 16-2-69-0 (1nb), Ashok Dinda 21-6-69-1, Ankit Rajpoot 17-1-77-1, Jalaj Saxena 22-0-74-1, Pragyan Ojha 11-1-58-2, Shreyas Gopal 28.5-4-123-5, Rajat Paliwal 1-0-7-0.

INDIA GREEN (II Innings): Robin Uthappa c Yuvraj b Kuldeep 72 (66b, 10x4, 1x6), Jalaj Saxena b Pandey 26 (26b, 6x4), Parthiv Patel lbw Kuldeep 21 (66b, 4x4), Rajat Paliwal lbw Kuldeep 0 (2b), Suresh Raina (batting) 42 (53b, 2x4, 2x6), Saurabh Tiwary lbw Kuldeep 31 (51b, 4x4), Shreyas Gopal c Bharat b Anureet 3 (12b), Sandeep Sharma b Kuldeep 0 (1b), Ashok Dinda (batting) 10 (6b, 2x4). Extras (LB-5, NB-7) 12. Total (for 7 wkts, in 46 overs) 217.

Fall of wickets: 1-66 (Saxena), 2-122 (Uthappa), 3-122 (Paliwal), 4- 131 (Patel), 5-185 (Tiwary), 6-198 (Shreyas), 7-199 (Sandeep).

Bowling: Anureet Singh 10-2-46-1 (nb-1), Nathu Singh 8-0-55-0 (nb-5), Akshay Wakhare 6-0-24-0, Ishwar Pandey 8-2-26-1, Kuldeep Yadav 13-1-55-5, Gurkeerat Mann 1-0-6-0.