Duleep Trophy 2019 – India Blue vs India Green, Day-1, Review: Ishan Porel shines with the ball on a rain-marred day

It was a rain-affected day in Bengaluru on Saturday. Thus, the game between India Blue and India Green didn’t witness much action on Day-1. Green’s skipper Faiz Fazal opted to bowl first after winning the toss and it paid rich dividends. With the overcast conditions, the pacers were able to extract a good amount of swing which put the batsmen under pressure.

Snell Patel was the first man to be dismissed on the day. The wicket-keeper was trapped LBW in front of the stumps by Tanveer Ul-Haq after he scored 5 runs. Then, skipper Shubman Gill also didn’t show much resistance. He tried to play his shots and even hit one boundary in the first twelve balls that he faced. However, he couldn’t keep the ball down on the ground on the 13th ball which gave Ishan Porel his first wicket in the game. Gill scored 6 runs before he was dismissed.

Play called off due to bad light

Even though a couple of wickets fell at the other end, Ruturaj Gaikwad was positive during his stay in the middle. He played some good cricketing shots and also took a few chances at times. The 22-year-old talented cricketer hit three boundaries and two sixes during his stay in the middle. However, he failed to capitalise on the start that he got and got out on 30. It was Tanveer Ul-Haq yet again who rattled his stumps with some wonderful bowling.

The team was down to 58/3 at this stage and there were further problems to come. Punjab’s Anmolpreet Singh came out to bat at number five. It was a great opportunity for him to bail his team out of trouble with some good and sensible batting. But, he couldn’t really do much and threw his wicket away after getting 14 runs. Dhruv Shorey took a good catch of Porel’s bowling to send him back to the pavilion.

Ricky Bhui too couldn’t do much and mustered only a couple of runs before getting out to Ankit Rajpoot. Jalaj Saxena also got a start and scored 19 runs but he too was undone by the ever-impressive Ishan Porel. Ankit Bawne though held the fort and remained unbeaten on 21 off 103 balls and Saurabh Kumar is batting with him in the middle.

Only 49 overs of play was possible on the day which was marred by rain and bad light as India Green ended on 112/6 and will be hoping to add as many runs as possible.

Brief Scores:

India Green: 112/6 in 49 overs (Ruturaj Gaikwad 30, Ankit Bawne 21*, Ishan Porel 3/26)