Porel, Tanveer rock Blue

Young Bengal pacer Ishan Porel was the star performer on a rain-hit opening day of the Duleep Trophy contest between India Blue and India Green.

At the Just Cricket ground here on Saturday, India Green skipper Faiz Fazal won the toss and put India Blue to bat. On a day when only 49 overs could be bowled, it was right-arm pacer Porel who impressed the most with figures of three for 26. Left-arm pacer Tanveer-ul-Haq chipped in with two for 36. At the end of day’s play, India Blue were reeling at 112/6.

Due to rain, play began only mid-way into the second session. Rajasthan’s Tanveer trapped opener Snell Patel (5) in front before Porel, who bowled good areas, had India Blue skipper and in-form batsman Shubman Gill nicking one to wicketkeeper. Porel, who was part of the Youth World Cup-winning India U-19 side, consistently got his deliveries to move away from the right-handers and also generated a fair amount of bounce during the 12 overs that he bowled. His final figures read 12-7-26-3.

The in-form Ruturaj Gaikwad (30 off 63 balls) showed positive intent hitting three boundaries and two sixes but Tanveer got one to shape in to breach the opener’s defence.

The seasoned Maharashtra batsman Ankit Bawne (21 batting, 103 balls) held one end up but his lack of intent to push the score hurt his team as Anmolpreet Singh became Porel’s second victim. The promising right-hander was caught by Dhruv Shorey.

India Green then got rid of the experienced Jalaj Saxena and Ricky Bhui to push India Blue to the wall. While Saxena (19, 26 balls) became victim to an away going delivery, Andhra batsman Bhui (2, 26 balls) was scalped by Ankit Rajpoot.

Saurabh Kumar (2) was giving Bawne the company in the middle. For India Blue, this is the last-recognised pair of batsmen with bowlers Tushar Deshpande, Basil Thampi and Aniket Chaudhary to follow.

Despite the good show, Tanveer felt India Green could have bowled better.

“Conditions were good for bowling, but whenever we erred, we were also punished. Ruturaj hit me for a six and same happened to Porel when he bowled one short. On the second day, the target is to get the remaining wickets within 15-20 overs.”

Brief scores: India Blue: 112/6 in 49 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 30; Ishan Porel 3-26, 2-36) vs India Green.