In the final day of the Duleep Trophy clash between India Blue and India Green, Indian left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha was the victim of a freak injury, as he was hit on the head while fielding at mid-on. The incident occured during India Blue’s second innings and the 30-year-old was immediately rushed off the field of play.
With the score at 276/9, Pankaj Singh launched into a slog to a delivery that was outside off but he only managed to muscle it to mid-on where Pragyan Ojha was the victim of some uneven bounce and the ball reared off the surface and struck him on the back of his head.
It looked as though the ball was just rolling towards mid-on and Ojha got his body behind it but the ball kicked off the surface and caught the spinner off guard and hit him on the left side of his head and needed immediate attention.
Here is a video of the incident courtesy of BCCI (Twitter):
All the players immediately surrounded him and one of the officials immediately called for what looked like a doctor and the physio and the entire medical staff were at the scene before too long. It didn’t take long for the stretcher to come out onto the field and it was immediately apparent that it was somethng serious as Ojha looked in serious pain.
Despite doing all the things right, he suffered a freak injury and one only hopes that it is not very serious. The injury meant that the action stopped for a while before resuming after the 30-year-old was taken off the field.
UPDATE: Ojha has regained consciousness in the hospital.
Although Jackson continued the acceleration, Pankaj was eventually bowled by Gopal with the score at 298, leaving India Green with a massive 769 to win with less than 50 overs of play left in the final day.
India Blue won the toss and elected to bat first and racked up 707 in the first innings thanks to centuries from Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson. Captain Gautam Gambhir only just missed out on a century as he was run-out on 90.
Shreyas Gopal was the pick of the bowlers for India Green as he picked up a five-wicket haul. But the response from Suresh Raina’s side wasn’t as impressive, as they were bundled out for 237 on the penultimate day. Parthiv Patel and Suresh Raina both scored fifties but it wasn’t enough as they all but surrendered their hopes of making it to the final of this year’s Duleep Trophy.
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