Duleep Trophy Final: Easwaran's 153 puts India Red in command

Abhimanyu Easwaran hit a brilliant 153 as India Red at Stumps on Day three was 345/6 - with a healthy lead of 114 runs.

Abhimanyu Easwaran plays a shot en route to his 153.

India Red built a healthy first-innings lead of 114 runs and was in control on Day three of the Duleep Trophy final against India Green at the M. Chinnaswamy stadium in Bengaluru on Friday.

For the third successive day, rain curtailed play and only 64 overs could be completed as India Red at Stumps was 345/6. Only four overs of action was possible after Tea, as play was officially called off at 5:00 PM IST due to bad light and periodic drizzle. 

Overnight batsmen Abhimanyu Easwaran and Ankit Kalsi played sedately and added another 52 runs before Dharmendrasinh Jadeja got Kalsi to edge one to keeper Akshay Wadkar.

Kalsi was particularly slow and kept finding the fielders during his 133-ball stay that yielded only 30 runs. The strike rate was a below par 22.55 against a bowling attack that hardly threatened, at least in the first half of the day.

He could find the boundary only thrice, but forged a fruitful 101-run partnership.

Mahipal Lomror, walking in next, briefly made the day’s proceedings exciting but Ankit Rajpoot ended his short stay in the second over after Lunch.

The replays showed the ball missing the leg-stump but with no DRS in the Duleep Trophy final, previous match centurion Lomror had to make his way back to the pavilion.

The Rajasthan player was hit on the ribcage by a Rajesh Mohanty bouncer and had to be treated, but continued batting. 

For India Green, Tanveer ul-Haq bowled with a lot of heart and managed to extract decent bounce in the second session.

Dharmendrasinh Jadeja appeals successfully for the wicket of Ankit Kalsi.

 

His hard work paid off, as he managed beating Abhimanyu with an inswinging ball and trapped him lbw. The opener made 153 in 300 balls.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan, under the national selectors’ radar, played a brisk and chancy innings of 39 before Rajpoot got him to edge one to keeper Wadkar.

Kishan was first dropped on 16 by Akshdeep Nath in the second slip off the bowling of Mohanty. In the same over, he bottom-edged past the slip cordon to the third man boundary. His charmed life was short-lived as he fell in the first over after Tea to Rajpoot, nicking the ball to the wicketkeeper.

Rajpoot was the most effective bowler for India Green, finishing the day with three for 77. The brisk sixth-wicket pair added 61 runs in 104 balls.

Mayank Markande did not take the field due to a glute strain and was substituted with Priyam Garg.