Duleep Trophy 2018, Match 1: India Red vs India Green - Day 1 Review

Another crucial season in Indian domestic cricket kick-started on Thursday (August 17) with the Duleep Trophy, where the India Red and India Green sides collided against each other at Dindigul. Interestingly, this is the third time the Duleep Trophy is being played under the lights.

Veteran batsman Abhinav Mukund, who is leading the India Red side, won the toss and elected to bat first. The innings started on a positive note for the Reds as the skipper alongside Sanjay Ramaswamy stitched a decent opening partnership. Both the players tackled the new pink cherry quite well and added 69 runs for the first wicket.

Just when their innings was gaining momentum, Mukund was sent back by the ever-impressive Ankit Rajpoot. Rajpoot, who grabbed the attention one and all in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2018 with his pace and agility, was at it once again. He wasn’t satisfied with one scalp and almost immediately sent the other opener back to the pavilion as well.

Parthiv Patel had a tough time juggling his bowling options as he had 6 decent individuals in the side who could roll their arm to good effect. The Reds batsmen were pretty stable with their approach, but bits and pieces contributions didn’t allow them to stamp their authority on the first day.

Ashutosh Singh makes an impression on the rain-marred day

The Duleep Trophy serves a purpose to bring some young shining stars to the limelight and Chhattisgarh batsman Ashutosh Singh made a decent impression on Day 1. He dug in at one end showing great fortitude and looked pretty reliable batting against the pink ball under light.

He first added a decent partnership with Tamil Nadu‘s Baba Aparajith before upping the ante alongside Writtick Chatterjee. Aparajith got off to a good start and promised a lot, but eventually fell to his Tamil Nadu teammate Vignesh Krishnamoorthy.

Writtick Chatterjee was the only batsman who came out with a positive intent. He came and spanked a few boundaries before but failed to stick around for a longer period, just like his other teammates. He fell after registering a run-a-ball 22 to veteran all-rounder Jalaj Saxena.

Ashutosh and Akshay Wadkar then sewed a 39-run partnership and batted together for 24 overs. The duo stemmed the flow of wickets, but it also had an impact on the flow of runs. When the scorecard read 176/4 in 64 overs, rain stopped the play and gave both sides some thinking space.

After the break, the Green side came out with a lot more aggression but failed to create any genuine impact. Ashutosh completed a fifty and helped his side cross the 200-run mark. Although they lost a couple of wickets, Reds managed to finish the day on a high at 230/6.

Brief Scores

India Red: 230/6 in 90 overs (Ashutosh Singh 57*, Abhinav Mukund 34; Ankit Rajpoot 3/38)