Blue soar before
GREATER NOIDA: On the eve of the second Duleep Trophy match, India Blue’s Gautam Gambhir had played down the hype surrounding pink ball and focused on the need to have right mindset.
On Monday, the Delhi Ranji captain stuck to his words and displayed little signs of nervous apprehension en route his 61st first-class half-century against Yuvraj Singh’s India Red at the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik stadium in Greater Noida, before incessant rains washed away almost two sessions of the day’s play.
Put in to bat on a green track, Gambhir and Karnataka batsman Mayank Agarwal displayed assured footwork and clarity of intent as the duo brought up the first hundred-plus opening stand of the tournament.
While Gambhir, batting with an open-chested stance, played the ball late and close to his body, Agarwal overcame a shaky start to produce some sumptuous punches and drives through the off-side.
The pitch, as promised by a senior member of ground staff on the eve of the match, remained true and easy for strokeplay. None of India Red’s three pacers — Nathu Singh, Pradeep Sangwan and Ishwar Pandey — could extract any help from the surface. Chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, who returned his best match figures in first class cricket of 9 for 120 in the previous game against India Green, struggled with his length.
CHANCES APLENTY However, it didn’t start badly for Reds. Nathu Singh, who grabbed a six-for in the previous match, got the first ball of the match to rise sharply. It caught Agarwal by surprise and the right-hander hurriedly played it to the leg side. The lob landed wide of short-leg.
Gambhir too had a scratchy start. The out of favour India batsman rode his luck when he miscued a pull off Nathu Singh and Pradeep Sangwan, fielding at deep fine leg, was late on the dive.
Soon, Sangwan drew an edge from his Delhi captain but it fell short of Dinesh Karthik at first slip. Next ball, the left-armer rapped Gambhir on the pads, but the batsman survived. Sangwan also beat Agarwal’s outside edge a number of times and his first spell of five overs yielded just 9 runs.
The sky turned overcast after 30 minutes of play, and there was anticipation of swing and seam movement as Yuvraj Singh brought on Ishwar Pandey, who failed to extract any help from the track.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav was removed from attack after just one over. Gambhir survived a run-out scare shortly before lunch and four overs later— 27th of the innings—nathu Singh caught Agarwal’s leading edge off his own bowling, only to find out that it was a no-ball.
The post-tea session started under floodlights, heavy cloud cover and a steady breeze from the east. Kuldeep Yadav pinged Gambhir on the pad but the southpaw survived, before the skies opened up to hand opening day honours to India.