Duleep Trophy, Match 1 Review: Mukund and Kuldeep seal a comfortable win for India Red

India Green wasn’t able to offer much on the final day of the 4-day match as they were folded out losing their last 3 wickets within the first hour of play to present India Red a comfortable 219-run win against the Suresh Raina-led India Green.

Abhinav Mukund was the one who stood firmly with the bat in the first innings in which the team was folded out for 161 runs. With 77 runs against his name, he ran out of partners in the first innings. He was the only player from the top 7 batsmen of the line-up to have a two digit score.

However, India Green batsmen failed to bounce the opportunity offered by their bowlers, to have a decent lead in the first innings. Sandeep Sharma with 4 wickets and Pragyan Ojha with 3 wickets were the one’s who made most of the damage.

India Red bowlers started off with the wicket of star batsman Robin Uthappa in the 7th ball of the innings to gave a hint of the storm to come. Nathu Singh was the one who picked the wicket with his first ball of the innings and he went on to clinch 6 wickets in the innings to give his side a surprising 10-run lead, as most of them has expected India Green to have a lead after a good performance with the ball in hand.

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Maybe, the low scores might also be a symptom of the additional support the pink-ball is offering for the pacers as most of the batsmen found it hard to negotiate. However, the left-handed Abhinav Mukund was batting in a different planet as he continued from where he left in the first innings and went on to be the first batsman to score a century in the first ever pink-ball Duleep Trophy season.

The Red team scored a commendable 486 in their second innings,  thanks to Mukund and Sudip Chatterjee (114), as the duo added 240 runs for the second wicket, which almost took India Red to a winning position. Gurkeerat Singh Mann also made a valuable contribution of 80 to the score as the India Green were given a target of 497 to win.

The openers Jalaj Saxena and Robin Uthappa started off well forging a steady 66-run stand for the first wicket, but poor judgement cost Saxena his wicket as Ishwar Pandey cleaned him up in the 10th over to break the stand. Uthappa was on the attack as he scored 72 runs off just 66 balls, but India Green lost 6 wickets in the last session of play on Day 3 to end the hopes of chasing down the huge target.

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Suresh Raina attacked the chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav in his 101-ball 90, however, Kuldeep had the last laugh as he bagged Raina’s wicket in both the innings. The pink Kookaburra did not lose its shine and there wasn’t much turn on offer. But Kuldeep deceived the batsmen with his dip and drift. He finished with 6 wickets in the second innings to go with his 3 in the first innings, as his match bowling figures read 33-5-120-9.

India Red secured six points as India Green were folded out for 277 in the second innings and Mukund was adjudged as the player of the match.

Brief Scores:

India Red: 161 all out (Abhinav Mukund 77, Sandeep Sharma 4/62) and 486 all out (Abhinav Mukund 169, Chatterjee 114, Gurkeerat 82, Gopal 5/123)

India Green: 151 all out (Saurabh Tiwary 50, Nathu Singh 6/53) and 277 all out (Suresh Raina 90, Robin Uthappa 72, Kuldeep Yadav 6/88)

India Red beat India Green by 219 runs

Player of the Match: Abhinav Mukund (India Red)