Published: Sep 06, 2016, 01:35 PM (IST)
Edited: Sep 07, 2016, 02:31 PM (IST)
Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog and live cricket updates post of the Duleep Trophy 2016-17. Here you will get all the live cricket updates of the match between India Blue and India Green. This is Day Three of the third match of the tournament and India Blue are facing India Green. Gambhir’s boys of India Blues surely have the advantage in the match currently having amassed a huge total which looks hard to chase. Suresh Raina’s India Green have already lost a match so far in the series and will have to win this to ensure their spot in the final while for India Blue, a draw will also help them reach the final. Also read: Duleep Trophy 2016 schedule, squads, venue
India Blue’s strength is definitely their long and heavy batting line-up and skipper Gambhir utilised it totally in the ongoing match. India Blue started the match off on a very positive note, with 336 runs on the board after stumps of Day One. India Green bowlers failed to pick up any wicket till India Blue reached 200 runs on the board. The first wicket they lost was of captain Gambhir, who scored a good 90 opening with Mayank Agarwal. Agarwal, however, has been the star performer for the side having performed consistently. The player is currently the highest run-getter of the tournament with one century, one half-century in the tournament. In the match, Agarwal contributed with 161 runs. The next man in, Cheteshwar Pujara also got the time to settle down at the crease and at stumps he had reached his half-century and was unbeaten at 60.
Pujara went on to score a total of 166 the next day, becoming the highest run-getter of the innings. But the flow of runs did not stop there and with a batting line-up going down till No. 7 spot, the batting looked comfortable and the India Green bowlers failed to stop that.
Pujara’s was not the last century of the innings, as Sheldon Jackson, coming out at No. 7, scored a century. It was a commendable effort as he stayed at the crease and saw a number of wickets fall. He built brief partnerships with the lower-middle-order batsmen and gradually reached the landmark. Contributions like a 32 from Abhimanyu Mithun, a 48 from Dinesh Karthik also added to the scorecard. A good half century from Karn Sharma pushed the run quickly post 700 and when Sheldon Jackson got out for 105, India Blue’s final score read 707.
A total of 80 boundaries were hit throughout the day. However, the decision of not declaring the innings might give rise to a few questions. This decision of Gambhir somehow ensured a safe total for his team with ample chances to win the match.
Among the India Green bowlers, Shreyas Gopal remained the most successful with a 5-for. Gopal dismissed the set batsmen like Pujara, Jackson and Karn Sharma to stop the runs to some extent but it was already quite late for him to get into action, as the team had already scored a humongous run.
Ashok Dinda was the other bowler to remain successful to pick up wicket with a couple. The bowlers looked helpless in front of the batting and players like Murali Vijay were tried for bowling, which failed. Bowling 20 overs, Ankit Rajpoot remained the most economical of all but remained wicketless. Jalaj Saxena bowled well on Day One but failed to continue that on Day Two, and finished with just a single wicket while Jasprit Bumrah also got one.
Later, talking about his century, Jackson called himself lucky as he was dropped mid-way of his innings. He also opined that the wicket looked good to bat on and the pink ball comes on to the bat well. He also revealed that the new pink ball is difficult to spot but taking time to adjust, a player can get used to the situation and once set, it is possible to tackle it. He also thought the pitch might behave differently to how it did on Days One and Two.
Though the target is huge, the India Green team consists of a lot of experienced players. The opening pair of Robin Uthappa and Murali Vijay has a lot of experience as well as runs in between them and to step closer to victory, it is important for India Blue to scalp early wickets as the second innings commences on Day Three. Uthappa has had a very good domestic season lately and if he continues scoring runs, India Green can chase the runs. Vijay is a regular member of the Indian team for the longest format and a lot of hopes will be on him to score the runs. Following these two, Parthiv Patel comes out to bat. Parthiv has the experience of leading a Ranji team and is a common name in the domestic circuit. The player has represented India at a very early age and has a lot of experience of the game. He, along with Suresh Raina coming out next, can take care of the middle-order and make that strong. The batting next has Saurabh Tiwary and Jalaj Saxena in it. Saxena is one of the most successful all-rounders currently in Indian domestic cricket and is expected to do what Sheldon Jackson did for India Blue in the lower-middle-order.
The India Blue consists of bowlers like Mohit Sharma, Karn Sharma, Pankaj Singh and Parvez Rasool. With the bowling and batting sides having so many elements to lift their team, the run chase is sure to be an exciting one.
A lot will depend on how the pitch behaves on Days Three and Four and how the bowlers make use of the situation.
Squads:
India Green: Robin Uthappa, Jalaj Saxena, Parthiv Patel (wk), Ambati Rayudu, Ian Dev Singh, Rohan Prem, Suresh Raina (c), Harbhajan Singh, Shreyas Gopal, Ashok Dinda, Sandeep Sharma, Ankit Rajpoot, Rajat Paliwal, Jasprit Bumrah, Murali Vijay, Saurabh Tiwary, Pragyan Ojha.
India Blue: Gautam Gambhir (c), Mayank Agarwal, Sheldon Jackson, Baba Aparajith, Siddhesh Lad, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Parvez Rasool, Karaparambil Monish, Krishna Das, Suryakumar Yadav, Mohit Sharma, Pankaj Singh, Shardul Thakur, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Karn Sharma.
