Duleep Trophy 2016: Bowlers make merry on Day 1 in D/N first-class match

The 2016 edition of the revamped Duleep Trophy which is being played under floodlights with the pink ball got underway at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground with the bowlers making the most of the conditions in the opening day of the match between Yuvraj Singh-led India Red and the India Green side led by Suresh Raina.

As many as seventeen wickets fell on the opening day of the tournament opener between India Red were bundled out for a lowly total of 161 runs within 50 overs, India Green also find themselves in a spot of bother with their scorecard reading 116/7 at stumps on Day 1.

Whatever little pink ball cricket has been played so far has shown that it favours the bowlers much more than the batsmen with a lack of practice being the obvious reason ad today was no different. Yuvraj Singh bravely opted to bat first after winning the toss but his side got off to a poor start with opening batsman Srikar Bharat getting dismissed as early as the sixth over.

While fellow opener Abhinav Mukund was holding one end, wickets kept tumbling at the other as the top-order batsmen including the skipper fell for single-digit scores leaving India Red reeling at 60-6 at one stage. Mukund found a little support late on with Kuldeep Yadav and later Anureet Singh forging useful partnerships that helped their side go past the 150-run mark.

However, Ojha dismissed Mukund for 77 runs, a knock which included 12 boundaries, to signal the beginning of the end of the innings with Sandeep Sharma cleaning off the tail to finish off with four wickets while Ojha claimed three scalps. Medium-pacer Ankit Rajpoot also played his part picking up the key wickets of Yuvraj and Gurkeerat Singh Mann.

India Green’s innings got off to a more disappointing start than the opposition with three wickets down with just 31 runs on the board. Robin Uthappa was the first to go followed by Jalaj Saxena and Rajat Paliwal. Though skipper Suresh Raina tried to steady the ship forming an useful 41-run partnership with Parthiv Patel, their dismissals in quick succession followed by an another couple of late dismissals has left the match evenly poised at the close of play on the opening day.

Green do have a recognised batsman in Saurabh Tiwary at the crease who has looked solid so far with 27 runs from 38 balls and Raina will be hoping that the tailenders can chip in with a few useful contributions to take the score past the opposition. Nathu Singh and Kuldeep Yadav have been their tormenters so far with three wickets each.

Brief scores: India Red 161 all out (Abhinav Mukund 77, Sandeep Sharma 4/62, Pragyan Ojha 3/19); India Green 116/7 (Suresh Raina 35, Kuldeep Yadav 3/26)