Gambhir falls after delayed start

Hard work: The first ball of the second day was bowled after three inspections, thanks mainly to the efforts of the 40-odd ground staff members.

The splendid work done by the ground staff almost came unstuck when rain returned to the Shaheed Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex on Tuesday to delay the start of the second day’s play in the Duleep Trophy match. Rain, however, relented and India Blue, resuming at 105 for no loss, was 153 for one in 48 overs an hour from close.

The first ball of the day was bowled after three inspections, thanks mainly to the 40-odd ground staff members, who worked overnight and employed five super-soppers to dry the ground.

The ground had resembled a large pool on Monday night following heavy downpour but it wore a transformed look following the efforts of the ground staff. The young brigade, under the guidance of curators Taposh Chatterjee and Shiv Kumar, deserved a huge pat for getting the field ready.It was nothing less than a miracle as the teams — India Red and India Blue — took the field with Mayank Agarwal (53) and skipper Gautam Gambhir (51) just about hanging in. Agarwal was distinctly lucky to survive a leg-before shout against Nathu Singh, who continued to trouble the batsmen.

Gambhir continued to nudge the ball in an effort to play out the day. He was determined to come up with a big score at the start of the season but fell to Nathu when he was late in coming down on the ball. His 77 off 143 balls was studded with ten fours, most of them square of the wicket.

The scores:

India Blue – 1st innings: Mayank Agarwal (batting) 74 (

142b, 9x4 ), Gautam Gambhir lbw b Nathu 77 (

143b, 10x4 ), B. Aparajith, Extras (nb-1) 1, Total (for one wkt in 48overs) 153.

Fall of wickets: 1-151 (Gambhir)

India Red bowling: Nathu Singh 6-0-23-0, Pradeep Sangwan 13-2-46-0, Ishwar Pandey 10-3-22-0, Kuldeep Yadav 11-0-33-0, Akshay Wakhare 5-0-18-0, Yuvraj Singh 1-0-5-0.