Shahbaz Nadeem’s five-wicket haul put India Red on the verge of an outright victory over India Blue before both sides decided to call off play on the final day of their Duleep Trophy match at the NPR College ground here on Sunday.
Set a target of 279 with two sessions remaining, Blue was struggling at 128 for eight with one hour and a minimum of 15 overs left in the day when the match ended. Red, by virtue of its first innings lead, qualified for the final with six points from two matches.
About the abrupt finish, Nadeem said, “since we had taken the first innings lead and qualified for the final, we felt there wasn’t much point in carrying on.”
Bright start
Blue started well with skipper Faiz Fazal and Dhruv Shorey adding 76 for the opening wicket. However, Parveez Rasool struck, castling Fazal and trapping Abhishek Raman in front.
Nadeem picked up his first wicket of the match at the stroke of the last break, dismissing Ricky Bhui leg-before and triggering a collapse that saw Blue lose eight wickets for 24 runs.
In the second over after resumption, Nadeem struck twice — Anmolpreet Singh was leg-before and Shorey, who was looking in fine touch on 45, was caught at short-mid wicket.
Nadeem performed the two-wicket-in-an-over act once again, removing Saurabh Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat this time.
Earlier, resuming at 156 for three, Siddhesh Lad and Akshay Wadkar helped Red negotiate the first 10 overs without any loss, adding 32 runs in the process. Wadkar was the first to go before Lad, who scored his second half-century of the match, followed soon. Red slumped from 198 for three to 209 for nine at this stage.
Spinners Wakhare and Saurabh finished with four wickets each, the duo providing Blue a ray of hope on the final day.
However, Abhimanyu Mithun had other ideas as he attacked the spinners in a run-a-ball unbeaten 47 that included six fours and two sixes. That innings effectively dashed Blue’s hopes.
The scores:
India Red — 1st innings: 316.
India Blue — 1st innings: 293.
India Red — 2nd innings: Sanjay Ramaswamy lbw b Saurabh 6, Abhinav Mukund lbw b Bhui 50, B. Aparajith c Fazal b Wakhare 19, Siddhesh Lad b Saurabh 68, Akshay Wadkar c Abhishek b Wakhare 47, Ashutosh Singh st. Bharat b Wakhare 0, Parvez Rasool st. Bharat b Saurabh 2, Abhimanyu Mithun (not out) 47, Shahbaz Nadeem c Unadkat b Wakhare 1, Rajneesh Gurbani c Bharat b Kumar 1, Ishan Porel b Unadkat 4; Extras (b-7, lb-1, nb-2): 10; Total (in 84.3 overs): 255.
Fall of wickets: 1-21, 2-66, 3-81, 4-198, 5-198, 6-200, 7-200, 8-202, 9-209.
India Blue bowling: Unadkat 4.3-0-19-1, Wakhare 32-4-110-4, Saurabh 34-8-79-4, Bhui 4-0-17-1, Kulkarni 5-0-16-0, Ayyappa 3-1-3-0, Anmolpreet 2-0-3-0.
India Blue — 2nd innings: Faiz Fazal b Rasool 39, Dhruv Shorey c Abhinav b Nadeem 45, Abhishek Raman lbw b Rasool 9, Ricky Bhui lbw b Nadeem 1, Anmolpreet Singh lbw b Nadeem 3, K.S. Bharat c & b Nadeem 4, Saurabh Kumar c Ashutosh b Nadeem 3, Jaydev Unadkat c Mithun b Nadeem 1, Dhawal Kulkarni (not out) 4, B. Ayyappa (not out) 15; Extras (b-4): 4; Total (for eight wkts. in 47 overs): 128.
Fall of wickets: 1-76, 2-92, 3-95, 4-101, 5-102, 6-106, 7-108, 8-110.
India Red bowling: Rasool 20-4-59-3, Nadeem 23-3-53-5, Gurbani 4-0-12-0.
Man-of-the-Match: Siddhesh Lad.
India Red 3 (6), India Blue 1 (1).
