Duleep Trophy Final, Day 3, Review: Victory in sights as India Blue gain a huge lead

India Red continued to struggle to find their foot in the game after India Blue delivered two big setbacks to them in the opening session Day 3 of the ongoing Duleep Trophy final at the Greater Noida Ground, Delhi.

Fast bowler Abhimanyu Mithun and spinner Ravindra Jadeja snapped two big fishes – Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh – in the quick successions mid-way into the first session. Both the overnight batsmen began well and probably looked comfortable in the middle.

However, after bowling close to 18 overs without any success, a breakthrough finally came with after Abhimanyu Mithun dismissed Yuvraj Singh. The skipper became the victim due to sheer brilliance by Pujara who took a superb reflex catch of the second attempt to make sure that Yuvi is not granted any life.

India Red had to shortly deal with another major setback after the string immaculate looking Dhawan lost his wicket while attempting to play a reverse sweep. The batsman committed a mistake but the credit once again goes to the fielder in action this time, was Mayank Agarwal who took a stunning low catch at short leg.

Fortunately, Gurkeerat Singh Mann and Stuart Binny, however, ensured that there were n further casualties as both together and took the India Red scorecard past the 100 run mark.

Both continued fighting and added a valuable 63 runs for the 5th wicket stand before Ravindra Jadeja began spinning his web. The left arm spinner broke the stand after he squared up Mann with a ripper to clean bowl him. Ankush Bains also could not survive for long and became Jadeja’s third victim.

But, before India Blue could make any further inroads, leg-spinner Amit Mishra, Kuldeep Yadav and Binny combined together to make sure that India Red did not sink further. Batting performances came from unexpected quarters as Mishra and Yadav both surprised everyone and hit half-centuries. Binny too, after starting cautiously, grew in confidence and hit a fabulous 98 run knock hitting studded with 12 fours and four sixes.

But, soon, India Red sensed the end of their innings after Binny was trapped LBW by Jadeja. Yadav batted till the end and took the score past the 350 run mark before becoming the last man to get out. All this struggle from the lower middle order and tail-enders saw India Red manage 356 runs eventually. India Blue really don’t have any worries at the moment with a handsome 338 runs lead. They would now probably wish to bat till the first session and bowl out India Red as quickly as possible to clinch the Duleep Trophy in style.

Updated till the tea session…

Brief Scores:

1st Innings

India Blue: 693/6d (C Pujara: 256*; Amit Mishra: 2/17)

India Red 356 all out (S Binny 98; R Jadeja 5/95)

2nd Innings

India Blue: 1/0