India Green were trailing by 77 runs with seven wickets in hand at Stumps of Day 1 after bundling India Blue out for 177 earlier. While Aniket Choudhary claimed three wickets, Parveez Rasool’s five-for in the second session supplemented by Mayank Dagar’s efforts helped India Green gain an upper-hand.
At the close of play, India Green were 100 for three in Kanpur as the teams’ battle for a spot in the Duleep Trophy finals. While Prashant Chopra was dismissed by Pankaj Singh, Manprit Juneja was batting on six.
Earlier, while India Blue opted to bat after a delayed start due to a wet outfield in the day-night game, they lost both openers early in the first session. Choudhary sent back Samit Gohil in his first over and followed up with the wicket of KS Bharat to leave the side on 16 for two. Suresh Raina then joined hands with Manoj Tiwary to rebuild the innings. With their task cut out, the experienced campaigners took the team to Tea at 92 for two.
The Tiwary-Raina partnership was however ended by Rasool early in the second session. The spinner accounted for the India Blue captain with the team on 106 and continued to run through the line-up. 18 runs later he trapped Deepak Hooda lbw while Choudhary dismissed Ishan Kishan in the next to leave India Blue tottering at 125 for five. Seven runs later, Rasool castled Jaydev Unadkat and a bit later accounted for Bhargav Bhatt to leave the team on 152 for seven. His next scalp was Tiwary. Rasool ended Tiwary’s patient 138-ball knock for 78 to leave India Blue gasping on 163 for eight. 14 runs later Mayank Dagar claimed Akshay Wakhare and Pankaj to wrap-up the India Blue innings at the stroke of Dinner.
As they looked to script a reply, NR Saini and Kaushik Gandhi put together 53 runs until Ishant Sharma accounted for the former. The opener then added 25 runs to the tally with Chopra until he was sent back by Wakhare for 39.
Chopra then looked to build a partnership with Juneja with the end of day’s play in sight when Pankaj struck to end the stand for 22 signalling close of day’s play.
Scores: End of Day 1 – India Blue 1st inn 177/10 in 52 overs (M Tiwary 78, S Raina 40, P Rasool 5/70, A Choudhary 3/18); India Green 1st inn 100/3 in 31.5 overs (K Gandhi 39, M Juneja 6*, I Sharma 1/15, P Singh 1/17) Trail by 77 runs
