Having extended their lead to 476 runs, India Blue were in a commanding position at the end of fourth day’s play in the ongoing Duleep Trophy final being played under lights with the pink ball against India Red. Rohit Sharma (22*) and Ravindra Jadeja (3*) had taken the team to 139 for the loss off three wickets in the second innings at stumps on Day 4.
Earlier, a wet outfield due to rain in the morning caused for a delay in the start of play on the penultimate day of the match. While the ground staff toiled to get the ground ready for play, spectators waited patiently on the grass banks of the stadium in Greater Noida to watch the contest.
When play eventually started later in the evening under lights, Mayank Agarwal and Gautam Gambhir resumed India Blue’s second innings with just the one run on the scoreboard from two overs the previous evening. However, 4.2 overs into the day’s play with 31 runs scored, play had to be stopped due to few areas of soft turf on the bowler’s run-up.
When the match restarted after dinner, the India Blue opening pair went about their task of adding to the score at an unhurried pace. However, for the first time in the tournament, the Agarwal-Gambhir opening partnership was halted before reaching the three-figure mark. The India Blue captain was adjudged lbw off Kuldeep Yadav.
At 67 for one, Rohit joined Agarwal in piling on the runs. The India Blue opener, who had scored 92, 161, 58 and 57 in his previous outings in the tournament scored his fifth successive half-century as the game inched towards the end of day’s play. However, three balls after reaching the mark, the batsman got out lofting Kuldeep Yadav towards mid-wicket and Nathu Singh took the catch.
Dinesh Karthik then contributed 16 runs to the India Blue total before being stumped off Amit Mishra. Rohit then saw the team through to end of day’s play with Jadeja in an unbroken 13-run partnership.
Brief scores:
Day 1 – India Blue 1st inn 362/3 in 90 overs (C Pujara 111*, G Gambhir 94, D Karthik 55*, S Binny 1/54, K Yadav 1/97)
Day 2 - India Blue 1st inn 693/6 decl. in 168.2 overs (C Pujara 256*, S Jackson 134, A Mishra 2/171); India Red 1st inn 16/2 in 9 overs (S Dhawan 14*, P Singh 2/12) Trail by 677 runs with 8 wickets in hand
Day 3 - India Red 1st inn 356/10 in 98.1 overs (S Binny 98, A Mishra 65, R Jadeja 5/95, K Sharma 2/85); India Blue 2nd inn 1/0 in 2 overs (M Agarwal 0*, G Gambhir 1*) Lead by 338
Day 4 - India Blue 2nd inn 139/3 in 35 overs (M Agarwal 52, K Yadav 2/47) Lead by 476 runs
