India Blue were 200 for five at the end of second day’s play with Dinesh Karthik and Sheldon Jackson in the middle, but yet to open their accounts. The Gautam Gambhir-led team, who had resumed play on 105 without loss were reduced to 200 for five by Kuldeep Yadav in the ongoing Duleep Trophy match under lights with the pink ball.
The young India Red spinner claimed four wickets in the span of 13 balls during the only session of play that happened on Tuesday evening to push the opposition on the back-foot.
Due to wet outfield after heavy rainfall on the first day, play eventually commenced at 8:15 pm at Shahid Vijay Singh Pathik Sports Complex in Greater Noida.
Resuming their innings, Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal played watchfully to build on the overnight score. The India Red pacers bent their backs in an effort to end the opening stand. It was after they had added 46 runs to the overnight total, that Nathu Singh trapped the left-hand opener lbw to give his side a crucial breakthrough.
With the captain back in the dressing room, Baba Aparajith joined Agarwal in taking the innings forward. 37 runs later, Agarwal coming down the track to Kuldeep was stumped eight runs short of a century. At 188 for two, Surya Kumar Yadav then made his way out to the middle, but in his next over, the spinner had the middle-order bat stumped as well. And he was on a hat-trick with the wicket of Karn Sharma but was denied the landmark by Karthik.
Aparajith was Kuldeep’s next scalp. The top-order bat edged the delivery towards the slips and Nitish Rana took a low catch at second slip leaving India Blue wobbling on 200 for five. Karthik and Sheldon then took the team to stumps.
Earlier, while there was no rain on the second day, wet outfield did not allow for play to start on scheduled time. The torrential rain on the first day accompanied by thunder and lightning had caused puddles around the ground which were cleared overnight by the ground staff. An inspection was scheduled for 3:30 pm as the groundsmen continued to toil. It was then followed by another inspection at 5:00 pm and then again at 6:30 pm. While there was the odd drizzle and the conditions were overcast, there was no rain.
After diligent inspection at 6:30 pm, the umpires rescheduled the start of second day’s play to 8:00 pm. However, just a few minutes before the play was expected to start, as the players were warming up on the sidelines, covers had to be put back due to a drizzle. A few minutes later though, the covers were removed and play was again rescheduled to start at 8:15 pm.
