Published: Sep 07, 2016, 09:38 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 08, 2016, 02:02 AM (IST)
A high-scoring one-sided match ends without a result as India Blue and India Green settle for a draw in the third match of Duleep Trophy 2016-17. India Blue dominated their opponents throughout the match with skipper Gautam Gambhir leading from the front. While the team’s batsmen pulled off an exceptional job, the bowlers backed that up with an equally good bowling performance and helped their side maintain the dominance in the match. With two draws in their two fixtures, India Blue will now face Yuvraj Singh’s India Red in the final match of the tournament. FULL CRICKET UPDATES: India Blue vs India Green, Duleep Trophy 2016-17
India Blue players looked confident from Day One. Opening the innings, Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal put up a lot of runs. India Green bowlers could not taste any success with the ball and India Blue went past 200 with ease. They lost their first wicket after 58 overs of game play as Gambhir departed for a run out, scoring a useful 90. Agarwal kept on batting with next man in Cheteshwar Pujara. Agarwal contributed with 161 and scored the first century of the innings. Day One ended with Cheteshwar Pujara being unbeaten at 60 and India Blue having scored 336 for the loss of 3 wickets.
The team lost an early wicket of Siddhesh lad but the next batsmen contributed with their bit. Pujara emerged as the highest run-getter for his side with a powerful knock of 166. All-rounder Abhimanyu Mithun scored 32 while experienced wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik remained unlucky to remain two runs short of his half-century. Coming in at No. 7, it was Sheldon Jackson who scored the last century of the innings. Jackson scored in boundaries and put up 105 off 114 balls, hitting 7 fours and 5 sixes while he was well supported by Karn Sharma, who scored 57. India Blue’s innings came to an end with a humongous 707 on the board.
However, Shreyas Gopal did the best job among the bowlers as he took a 5-for for India Green. Ashok Dinda got a couple of wicket while Jasprit Bumrah and Jalaj Saxena got a solitary wicket each.
India Green never looked comfortable while batting, with the pressure of the huge target hanging above head. The team consists of many big names but none could do what was asked of them in the situation. Opener and India Test team regular Murali Vijay’s bizarre shot selection got his stumps exposed and bowled off a Karn Sharma delivery early in the innings. All he could do was a contribution of 6 run. His partner Robin Uthappa stayed at the crease for a longer span but not much. Wickets kept falling in regular intervals, thanks to Mithun and Karn. Saxena departed for 13 while Uthappa fell for 41. Parthiv Patel was the only batsmen of the top five to reach the milestone of 50 runs. The batsman tried to change the scenario with a calm approach but that too did not last as long as to give him anthing more than 55 runs. Saurabh Tiwary looked in a good touch, with well-executed shots. But he also remained unlucky to get himself run out for 26. Suresh Raina was the only successful batsman in the lower-middle-order to score as much as a half-century but he failed to find support from the other end and departed soon after reaching the milestone. However, Raina’s batting looked good.
Of the India Blue bowlers, Mithun and Karn both bagged three wickets each and were the curators of bundling opponents’ innings for a mere 237. Pankaj single bagged two wickets while Parvez Rasool could only get one. India Blue already had a lead of 470 runs but Gambhir decided to bat on and did not implement follow on.
Batting again, India Blue looked equally fresh and confident. At stumps of Day Three, India Blue had 85 without any loss with Gambhir batting at 36 and Agarwal one run short of his half-century. Batting on final day, both Gambhir and Agarwal got to their individual half-centuries. Gambhir departed for 59 while Agarwal departed for 58. India Green bowlers looked more effective with the ball than their previous attempt and kept scalping wicket regularly. Pujara was sent of for 31. However, Jackson and Karthik did miss on building up one partnership in the lower-middle-order. While Karthik departed for 57, Jackson stayed at the crease and finished unbeaten at 79. The rest of the players could not do any significant contribution and India Blue ended their second innings with 298 runs on the board and had earned a lead of 768 runs.
Batting again, India Green put up a better performance than before. Though Saxena departed early, scoring only 7 runs, Vijay and Karthik stayed at the crease and showed the kind of batting that was expected of them. Both are experienced players and they put that into their game to get to their individual half-centuries. While Uthappa’s innings came to an end with 66 runs, Vijay scored 73. With Saurabh Tiwary unbeaten at 20 and team score of 179 for 4, India Green decided to settle for a draw with India Blue.
With this match, India Blue qualify for the final with a Yuvraj Singh-led India Red scheduled to be played at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground, Greater Noida starting on Saturday. Earlier, India Red and India Blue had ended up in a draw in a rain-interrupted match. However, Agarwal had scored a crucial 92 with Gambhir adding 77. The two batsman have formed one of the most successful opening pairs of the tournament and will be looking to continue the good run to win the final match and lift the trophy. Agarwal is so far the highest run-getter of the tournament and is a star for the side while he has been well-supported by Gambhir and Pujara. In the middle-order, it is Jackson who showed his class while Mithun has been India Blue’s go to man with the ball. On a contrary, India Red’s biggest name Yuvraj is yet to perform up to his level and his fans will want to see him fire in the final.
Brief scores:
India Blue 707 (Mayank Agarwal 161, Gautam Gambhir 90, Cheteshwar Pujara 166, Sheldon Jackson 105, Karn Sharma 56; Ashok Dinda 2 for 114, Shreyas Gopal 5 for 173) and 298 (Gautam Gambhir 59, Mayank Agarwal 58, Dinesh Karthik 57, Sheldon Jackson 79; Pragyan Ojha 3 for 90, Jalaj Saxena 2 for 77, Shreyas Gopal 4 for 53) drew with India Green 237 (Robin Uthappa 41, Parthiv Patel 55, Suresh Raina 52; Karn Sharma 3 for 74, Abhimanyu Mithun 3 for 16) and 179 for 4 (Murali Vijay 73, Robin Uthappa 66; Pankaj Sharma 1 for 29, Karn Sharma 2 for 68)
