Internet Desk: After bowling India Red out for 161 in the first innings, India Green were 116 for seven at the end of day’s play in the first pink-ball first-class game being played in India for the Duleep Trophy. The Suresh Raina-led team were trailing by 45 runs with three wickets in hand at the end of first day’s play. After Sandeep Sharma (four for 62) and Pragyan Ojha (three for 19) ran through the India Red line-up, Nathu Singh (three for 32) and Kuldeep Yadav (three for 26) dismantled the India Green line-up in the first day-night first-class match.
After being left gasping on 60 for six by the India Green attack, Abhinav Mukund (77) held up one end and the lower-order then helped add 101 runs to the tally. The pacer used swing to his advantage to finish with a four wicket haul in the opening game of the Duleep Trophy.
Nathu, who hadn’t been able to open his account with the bat, accounted for Robin Uthappa in his first over to leave India Green on 1/1 to get India Red off to a good start in the session under lights. Parthiv Patel then joined Jalaj Saxena to take the team to dinner. Like Sandeep, earlier in the day, Anureet Singh too swung the ball opening the bowling with Nathu.
Early into the final session of the day, Nathu accounted for two more. A low catch by KS Bharat behind the stumps saw the back of Jalaj while Rajat Paliwal was trapped lbw. With his team struggling on 31 for three, Suresh Raina joined Patel in the middle. The pair had added five more runs to the total when play was stopped due to failure of three towers (36 for three in 9.3 overs).
When play resumed Patel and Raina went about the task of rebuilding the innings. However, as the partnership began to take shape, the wicketkeeper-batsman departed nicking Kuldeep to the keeper. The Green’s skipper was the spinner’s next scalp; stepping out to the bowler, Raina found his woodwork disrupted. Later in the over he also followed up with the wicket of Shreyas Gopal to leave the opposition struggling on 87 for six.
Next to return to dressing room was Sandeep, run out with the team having reached the three-figure mark. Saurabh Tiwary (27*) then took the team to stumps with Ashoke Dinda (8*).
Earlier, after electing to bat, the India Red line-up collapsed without much resistance. The Yuvraj Singh-led team lost six wickets in the first session in quick succession. KS Bharat was the first to depart with just 11 runs on the board. The opener top edged a short delivery from Sandeep and Robin Uthappa took a good catch running back from slips. The pacer then induced an edge from Sudip Chatterjee to Parthiv Patel behind the wickets to leave the team on 33 for two.
After adding just four runs to the total, the captain flicked one towards square-leg to lose his wicket. Gurkeerat Mann then edged Ankit Rajpoot to the wicketkeeper and followed the captain back into the dressing room without opening his account. KB Arun Karthick fell slogging Pragyan to short mid-wicket. Akshay Wakhare’s stay in the middle was ended by a superb piece of fielding by Rajat Paliwal’s reflex catch at short-leg off Dinda.
10 overs into the second session Sandeep Sharma struck once again to claim Kuldeep’s wicket. Abhinav Mukund, who battled on, survived on 67 as Patel missed a tough chance after the ball took the edge off the opener’s bat and flew past the wicketkeeper. However, in the latter half of the session the opener dragged a Pragyan delivery onto his stumps to return for 77.
Without a run added to the score-line, Anureet (32) heaved at a Sandeep delivery and found Surabh Tiwary at third man leaving the team struggling on 144 for nine. And 17 runs later Pragyan disrupted Ishwar Pandey’s stumps to bowl India Red out.
Brief scores: Day 1 – India Red 1st inn 161/10 in 48.2 overs (A Mukund 77, S Sharma 4/62, P Ojha 3/19); India Green 1st inn 116/7 in 35 overs (S Raina 35, K Yadav 3/26, N Singh 3/32)