Cheteshwar Pujara took his team to 693 for six with an unbeaten 256-run knock until India Blue declared their innings in the latter half of the last session of the second day. In reply, India Red were struggling on 16 for the loss of two wickets with Shikhar Dhawan (14*) and Yuvraj Singh in the middle at stumps in the ongoing Duleep Trophy Final being played with the pink ball.
After the batsmen had set up the game in India Blue’s favour with a mammoth first innings total, Pankaj Singh claimed two wickets in two balls in the first over of the India Red innings to leave the opposition gasping.
The tall pacer trapped Abhinav Mukund leg before wicket and knocked back Sudip Chatterjee’s stumps to leave the team on two for the loss of two wickets. Yuvraj Singh, however, denied the pacer a hat-trick. Dhawan then saw India Red through to the end of day’s play with the captain, who is yet to open his account.
Earlier, Pradeep Sangwan uprooted Dinesh Karthik’s stumps of the first delivery off the day, but that was the only bright spot for India Red during the second day’s play. Sheldon Jackson then joined his Saurashtra team-mate, Pujara in piling on runs for India Blue. Continuing from where he had left the previous day, the top-order batsman ensured that he reached the 200-run mark which had missed out on the previous game against India Green. In the process, he joined the elite club of Vijay Merchant, Vijay Hazare, Sunil Gavaskar and Rahul Dravid to reach 200 for the 10th time in first-class cricket.
Sheldon who has been in good nick coming into the tournament had two unbeaten knocks and a century against his name in the league outings, scored another one in the all important game. After a shaky start, Sheldon worked to build his knock while Pujara steadily added to his chanceless ton. The top-order bat brought up his 150 with a single down leg-side off Kuldeep Yadav.
Resuming on 438 for four after Tea, Pujara and Sheldon continued to glean runs off the India Red attack in the next session. Both batsmen reached their individual landmarks as they added 155 runs to the team’s tally before dinner. The middle-order batsman guided Mishra down the leg side to reach the three-figure mark; his fourth outside Saurashtra. Sheldon who had survived twice early in the innings, was given life by Dhawan after reaching his ton. Meanwhile his senior partner who was batting fluently reached his 10th double-century with a boundary off Kuldeep Yadav. The pair took the team to dinner on 593 for four.
However, in the second over of the last session, the fifth wicket partnership was halted for 243. After hitting Mishra for a six, he departed hitting the ball back to the spinner off the next delivery. However, by then the team had passed the 600-run mark.
The spinners – Kuldeep Yadav and Amit Mishra were plundered for 214 and 171 runs respectively by Pujara and Co. Coming to the crease on 605 for five, Jadeja joined Pujara in the batting fest. The duo added 88 runs at over four runs an over to take the team to 693 until part-time spinner, Abhinav Mukund ended the stand with the wicket of the lower middle-order batsman. The ball took the inside edge and crashed into Jadeja’s stumps to end the flourishing stand. Having raised a mountain of runs, India Blue declared their first innings after the fall of the sixth wicket.
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)
