The India Blue declaration came ten overs into the final day’s play but India Red stood little chance of getting 517 runs in a minimum of 86 overs on the final day of the Duleep Trophy final at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex here on Wednesday.
The insipid contest was consigned to history 43.5 overs from close with India Blue skittling India Red out for 161 to win by 355 runs. India Blue added 40 runs to extend India Red’s misery on the field after resuming at 139 for three. The target for India Red was overwhelming. It would have needed an astonishing charge similar to the one that Yusuf Pathan had produced at Hyderabad in February 2010 when he slammed an unbeaten 210 to carry West Zone past 536 with three wickets in hand.
India Red, however, could not even bat to save the match. After opener Abhinav Mukund suffered an injury off a Pankaj Singh ball that hit his shoulder, the India Red innings collapsed against the sustained line that Ravindra Jadeja bowled. Once again the left-arm spinner was able to extract impressive turn and bounce to fox the batsmen and his haul of five for 76 complemented his first innings performance of five for 95.
Once Sudip Chatterjee fell to an ill-timed slog the India Red innings saw wickets falling steadily. Shikhar Dhawan fell to an excellent combination — off-spinner Parveez Rasool enticing the batsman into forward defence and the edge taken smartly by Cheteshwar Pujara on his left. It was a classical dismissal that boosted the confidence of the India Red attack.
Yuvraj Singh and Stuart Binny fell in succession to Jadeja. Yuvraj drilled the ball to midwicket and Binny fell in trying to sweep. The floodlights came on and India Red slipped into deeper distress when Gurkeerat Singh was stumped superbly by Dinesh Karthik and Amit Mishra was snared by Jadeja as the batsman was surprised by the bounce.
Jadeja fittingly brought the match to an end with his 10th wicket but the Man of the Match honours went to Cheteshwar Pujara for his unbeaten 256.
The scores:
India Blue – 1st innings: 693 for six decl.
India Red – 1st innings: 356.
India Blue – 2nd innings: Mayank Agarwal c Nathu b Kuldeep 52 (83b, 6x4, Gautam Gambhir lbw b Kuldeep 36 (59b, 5x4), Rohit Sharma (not out) 32 (75b, 1x4, 1x6), Dinesh Karthik st Bains b Mishra 16 (12b, 3x4), Ravindra Jadeja (run out) 17 (23b, 1x4), Sheldon Jackson c Dhawan b Kuldeep 2 (7b), Karn Sharma (not out) 12 (12b, 1x4, 1x6), Extras (b-2, lb-7, nb-1, w-2, ) 12, Total (for five wkts decl in 45 overs) 179.
Fall of wickets: 1-67 (Gambhir), 2-108 (Agarwal), 3-126 (Karthik), 4-160 (Jadeja), 5-162 (Jackson)
India Red bowling: Pradeep Sangwan 7-1-14-0, Nathu Singh 3-0-27-0, Kuldeep Yadav 19-2-62-2, Stuart Binny 6-0-20-0 (nb-1, w-1), Amit Mishra 5-0-24-1, Gurkeerat Singh Mann 5-0-23-0.
India Red – 1st innings: Abhinav Mukund (retd hurt) 0 (7b), Shikhar Dhawan c Gambhir b Rasool 29 (50b, 3x4), Sudip Chatterjee c Mithun b Jadeja 14 (39b, 1x4), Yuvraj Singh c Pankaj b Jadeja 21 (31b, 1x4, 2x6), Gurkeerat Singh Mann st Karthik b Karn 39 (37b, 1x4, 4x4), Stuart Binny lbw b Jadeja 0 (7b), Ankush Bains c Karthik b Karn 20 (34b, Amit Mishra c Pujara b Jadeja 0 (7b), Kuldeep Yadav (not out) 24 (43b, 2x4, 2x6), Pradeep Sangwan b Karn 0 (1b), Nathu Singh lbw b Jadeja 11 (10b, 1x4, 1x6), Extras (b-2, nb-1) 3, Total (all out in 44.1 overs) 161.
Fall of wickets: 1-43 (Chatterjee), 2-43 (Dhawan), 3-95 (Yuvraj), 4-98 (Binny), 5-106 (Gurkeerat), 6-113 (Mishra), 7-138 (Bains), 8-138 (Sangwan), 9-161 (Nathu)
India Blue bowling: Pankaj Singh 5-3-12-0, Abhimanyu Mithun 2-1-7-0, Ravindra Jadeja 18.1-2-76-5 (nb-1), Parveez Rasool 10-1-31-1, Karn Sharma 9-2-33-3.
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