Duleep Trophy 2017, IND Red v IND Blue: Baba Indrajith's ton saves the day for Reds

Stakes were on India Red’s side ahead of the clash against India Blue after their win over India Green in the opening encounter of the Duleep Trophy 2017. Their top order displayed tremendous form and so did those in the middle. This was enough a reason for skipper Dinesh Karthik to elect to bat first after winning the toss. But on Day 1 of the second match at the Green Park in Kanpur things didn’t pan out like they’d have planned as India Blue bowlers had them in tatters at 159/7.

It was Baba Indrajith’s unbeaten century that bailed them out of the troubles. The 23-year-old despite constantly losing partners kept the scoreboard ticking and with minimal contribution from others took the team close to the 300-run mark at stumps. With Indrajith on 120 from 181 balls, India Red went back with 291 runs on the board for the loss of 9 wickets.

They had a decent start with two prolific run scorers from Bengal and Gujarat forming the opening pair. Priyank Panchal, in particular, walked into this game on a high having scored twin centuries in the first match; in the interim, he was also picked in the India A squad for the home series against New Zealand A. Once Panchal and Sudip Chatterjee added a half century partnership things looked in the right tone for India Red.

That was when local lad Ankit Rajpoot got into the act and quite literally changed the course of the innings. He got them the breakthrough with the big wicket of Panchal. Skipper Suresh Raina brought himself into the attack then and he hit the timber through Chatterjee’s defence. Having tasted blood the pacer didn’t let Rahul Singh settle in and claimed his wicket for 7.

India Blue had another cricket wicket when Bhargav Bhatt hit Karthik on the pads in front of his stumps and the skipper walked back for just 15. Things deteriorated further and the Reds soon found themselves in deep waters 7 down for 159. All hopes were now on the Tamil Nadu batter to take them to a respectable total and he responded beautifully utilizing contribution from his lower order partners and constantly adding runs to the total.

His effort flourished into a remarkable hundred; his 5th in first-class cricket and put the team in a substantial situation. At stumps, he was unbeaten on 120 and India Red will feel pretty comfortable with a total above 300 considering where they were at one point. It was Rajpoot who made the best use of the pink ball claiming three wickets, Jaydev Unadkat was the next best on the day with figures of 2/64. Bhatt, Wakhare, Raina and Manoj Tiwary shared a wicket a piece.

Brief Scores:

1st Innings

India Red 291/9 (Baba Indrajith 120*; Ankit Rajpoot 3/44)