Spinners continued to call the shots in the Duleep Trophy played with pink ball under lights here. India Blue, in reply to India Red’s score of 483, conceded a first innings lead of 184 runs and then crawled back to restrict the opponents to 187 for seven at close on the third day, an overall deficit of 371 runs
Left-arm spinner Bhargav Bhatt (4/154) and off-spinner Akshay Wakhare (3/95) had excelled for India Blue in the first innings and India Red exploited the conditions through off-spinner Washington Sundar (5/94) and Vijay Gohil (5/121) to make it a spinners’ paradise.
The seamers – three in each team – seem to make up the numbers. In India Blue’s first innings, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi and Ashok Dinda bowled a mere six overs among them even as Washington and Gohil tormented the batsmen on a responsive pitch.
Spinners operating with the new ball did not really speak well for the surface. Credit to India Blue opener Abhimanyu Easwaran (171 balls, 15 fours), who hit his fourth first-class century, he displayed an impressive technique to counter spin, playing the waiting game when most others jabbed at the ball. A hard-hitting 83 by Jaydev Unadkat (90 balls, seven fours and fours sixes) ensured India Blue avoided the follow-on.
India Red was rattled early in the second innings as spinners came into play right away. Supported by some excellent catching in the close-in by Manoj Tiwary, the India Red innings stuttered before B. Indrajith and Washington dug themselves in with some resolute batsmanship.
- India Red -1st innings: 483
- India Blue -1st innings: Abhimanyu Easwaran c Jaggi b Washington 127, K. S. Bharat b Gohil 8, Manoj Tiwary c Karthik b Gohil 25, Suresh Raina st Karthik b Sundar 1, Deepak Hooda c Kaul b Gohil 12, Ishaan Kishan lbw b Sundar 0, Jaydev Unadkat c Milind (sub) b Washington 83, Bhargav Bhatt c Karthik b Washington 12, Akshay Wakhare c Kaul b Gohil 6, Ishant Sharma (not out) 3, Pankaj Singh c Gehlat (sub) b Gohil 0; Extras (b-10, lb-7, pen 5) 22 , Total (in 67 overs) 299.
- Fall of wickets: 1-51, 2-93, 3-94, 4-121, 5-123, 6-263, 7-290, 8-291, 9-299.
- India Red bowling: Vijay Gohil 32-3-121-5, Siddharth Kaul 3-0-10-0, Washington Sundar 24-1-94-5, Akhil Herwadkar 5-0-44-0, Basil Thampi 2-0-3-0, Ashok Dinda 1-0-5-0.
- India Red-2nd innings: Prithvi Shaw (run out) 31, Akhil Herwadkar c Tiwary b Wakhare 8, Ishank Jaggi c Tiwary b Bhatt 3, Dinesh Karthik c Tiwary b Wakhare 9, B. Indrajith b Unadkat 59, Washington Sundar (batting) 42, Suryakumar Yadav c Tiwary b Bhatt 22, Vijay Gohil st Bharat b Bhatt 3, Siddharth Kaul (batting) 5, Extras (b-4, nb-1) 5, Total (for seven wkts in 62 overs) 187
- Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-24, 3-43, 4-58, 5-135, 6-164, 7-168.
- India Blue bowling: Bhatt 24-4-75-3, Raina 2-0-9-0, Wakhare 20-5-53-2, Pankaj 5-1-8-0, Ishant 6-2-14-0, Unadkat 4-0-18-1, Tiwary 1-0-6-0.
