The best efforts of the ground staff were nullified by the weather even though the rain was not of the same magnitude as the previous days. The final day’s play of the Duleep Trophy match, between India Red and India Blue, was abandoned without a ball being bowled at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex (SVSPSC) here on Thursday.
For a centre aspiring to host regular cricket there were a few issues the organisers would need to take care of in the future. The SVSPSC is the home ground for the Afghanistan team and next month it is scheduled to play host to the women’s team from New Zealand.
The ground staff, marshalled by Central Zone curators Taposh Chatterjee and Shiv Kumar, did an excellent job of covering the playing area and then carrying out the mopping up operations at a furious pace. Five super soppers, some on load from the Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA), were employed to dry up the ground but unrelenting rain put the exercise back to square one.
The pitch remained unaffected but there were spots in the outfield which did not meet the approval of the umpires for a resumption of the contest on Thursday. According to members of the ground staff it would have taken at least two days of exposure to bright sun for the authorities to entertain any hopes of play at this level.
The SVSPSC was not the original choice for the Duleep Trophy. The tournament was to be hosted by Jaipur originally but full marks to the organisers here for laying out the best possible facilities barring protection against rain. The drainage system may not have met the required standards but the players had little to complain when it came to the pitch.
The floodlights did not cause any trouble to the batsmen in sighting the pink ball. True, a couple of batsmen had some issues but only during the initial stages as they settled down to play as normally as with the red ball. India Blue openers Gautam Gambhir (77) and Mayank Agarwal (92) came up with a partnership of 151 runs before left-arm Kuldeep Yadav caused a middle order collapse.
There was enough for everyone – the batsman could play its strokes, the seamers were able to keep the batsmen guessing with late swing and movement off the pitch while Kuldeep enjoyed his spells, making a huge impression with his ability to extract turn and command respect from the opposition. His dismissals of Agarwal and Suryakumar Yadav were exemplary as he beat them in the air and off the pitch too with a clever mix of flight and spin.
The teams ended up with a point each which took India Red’s tally to five and a place in the final. India Blue and India Green, which lost its opening match to Red, now plays India Green from September 4 to 6 to decide the second finalist.
The scores: India Blue 285 for five.
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