Duleep Trophy Final, Day 4 Review: India Blue firmly in the driving seat

Although rain made an intervention in the early part of the penultimate day’s play, Gautam Gambhir, and his India Blue lineup were well and truly on their way to victory in the 2016 edition of the Duleep Trophy. The pink ball, for some strange reason, has not had the desired effect on India Blue thus far.

The day began with the wet outfield halting play momentarily before Mayank Agarwal and Gautam Gambhir began to stitch yet another important partnership in the grander scheme of things on Day 3 of the encounter. However, there was more of the same on Day 4 as just the 33 overs were bowled, all in the final session of play.

In spite of getting off to yet another wonderful start, Kuldeep Yadav snapped up both openers courtesy of some wonderful bowling. However, by then, Mayank Agarwal had helped himself to yet another half-century while Gambhir had managed 36 runs. Perhaps this was yet another way of showcasing Gambhir’s aggressive style of captaincy.

Needless to say, spin played it’s part in the fall of the next wicket when Dinesh Karthik was dismissed to a top-spinner from Amit Mishra. Although Karthik looked somewhat solid in his innings of 16, the deception of flight certainly made him look somewhat silly in the process.

With the Indians keen on Rohit Sharma playing before he took on the Kiwis in the upcoming series, the 29-year old was promoted up the batting order. Ravindra Jadeja too was promoted up the order in a bid to get some batting practice. This, however, meant that Cheteshwar Pujara might not get to bat at all.

However, with rains expected, it remains to be seen whether the play will be possible or not. Should the scores remain the same, India Blue will go ahead and clinch the 2016/17 edition of the Duleep Trophy.

Brief Scores:

India Blue: 693/6 dec.

India Red: 356 all out

India Blue: 139/3 (M Agarwal 52; K Yadav 2/47)