Duleep Trophy Final, Day 4 Report: Gautam Gambhir-led India Blue inch closer to title over India Red

With India Blue having a mammoth lead of 476 runs over India Red in the final of Duleep Trophy 2016-17 and only one day of play remaining, it is somewhat clear that Gautam Gambhir has one hand over the trophy.

In what a delayed start to India Blue continued their dominance on Day 4 of the Duleep Trophy Final 2016-17 against India Red at Greater Noida. With rain playing spoilsport before the start of play the game lost almost two sessions worth of cricket before the play resumes late in the evening. India Blue batsmen Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal came out in the middle to pile on more run having already a lead of 337 runs from their first innings. Gambhir and Mayank assured that the lead nears the 400 run mark without any fuzz. India Blue going into stumps at Day 4 were survived by Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma not-out on 3* & 22* runs respectively with a mammoth lead of 476 runs with the second innings score reading 139 for 3. ALSO READ: India announce squad for Test series vs New Zealand

Starting the day so late, the game had to further stopped for more than an hour owning to unsafe ground conditions. The area in contention was the bowlers run-up were a big ditch had been formed and was hurriedly repaired by the ground staff. Once the game started again Gambhir and Agarwal started scoring at a brisk pace, particularly the former. Gambhir again chanced his dancing feet against the India Red bowlers.

Gambhir initially found Nathu Singh and Pradeep Sangwan easy to score off, picking them for easy runs. Gambhir who is known to good against both spin  and pace , was found to be in a hole against Kuldeep Yadav. Yadav was able to get the ball to grip and purchase mild turn from the pitch. Kuldeep was able to get make Gambhir play and miss quite a few times in this knock. Finally Gambhir gave into his temptation of trying to flick Yadav for runs, a ball which he completely missed and was caught right in front of the wicket for an easy leg-before.

Gambhir made 59-ball 36 which included five four’s and no six. Both Gambhir and Agarwal added 67 runs in 17.2 overs for the first wicket. After the wicket of Gambhir it was Agarwal who took on the role of the anchor to the India Blue’s innings. Coming in at No.3 was India 264-man Rohit Sharma who had just been selected in the India’s Test squad against New Zealand. Rohit would have wanted to prove to everyone that he deserved that place in the squad but looked very unsettled out in the middle.

Agarwal who was scoring slowly up until now started to pick up the pace. Agarwal liked the ball coming on to his bat and took a liking for Stuart Binny. Agarwal found his rythm soon and started canting easy runs. Agarwal brought up his fifty in style with a boundary, with this he completed his 11th First-Class half-century as well in 79 balls.  Agarwal perished in the very same over to Yadav. In an attempt to hit with the spin, Agarwal managed to hand the ball straight into the hand of Nathu Singh standing at mid wicket boundary.

Half-centurion from the first innings Dinesh Karthik came in and started off with a aggressive intent again. Karthik after scoring three quick boundaries gave his wicket away to Amit Mishra. Mishra who was waiting to nab his first wicket of this innings, outfoxed Karthik and made him come down the track only to have the keeper’ stump him in a jiffy.

Karthik added just 16 runs to the India Blue’s scoreboard. Meanwhile on the other end of the pitch, Rohit stood talk and nervous. Joined in between by Ravindra Jadeja, the man with the golden arm of India Blue in the first innings of bowling played out the remaining 3 overs of the day without any trouble. Rohit played out 48 balls for his 22 runs which had one four and one six, while Jadeja played just 9 balls to end up the day with 3 runs under his belt.

Day four will also be talked about the poor ground facilities it displayed. With only three-super soppers in the available it took ages for the ground staff to get the ground dry and ready for play.

Day Three was all about Jadeja, who marshaled the bowling attack against India Red his team a 338-run lead by the end of days play. It was only Gurkeerat Singh Mann, Stuart Binny, Amit Mishra and Kuldeep Yadav who provide any resistance against the spin of Jadeja. Gurkeerat along the way managed to record his 10th First-Class fifty. After Gurkeerat it was Binny who got to his half-century in 123 balls. Jadeja picked with 5 for 95 with the likes of Gurkeerat, Dhawana and Binny to his kitty.

Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson shook India Red with their appetite for big score with superlative unbeaten knock of 256 and 134 respectively on Day Two. Pujara also completed his 10,000 First-Class (FC) runs en-route his 33rd FC ton.

Earlier, Gambhir had won the toss on a seemingly good batting pitch. India Blue announced two changes in the team with Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja coming in the playing XI from the previous match replacing Siddhesh Lad and Mohit Sharma. Yuvraj Singh led India Red also made as many as three changes in the playing XI with Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny and Amit Mishra coming in.

Brief Scores:

India Blue 693 for 6 decl. (Gautam Gambhir 94, Cheteshwar Pujara 256*, Sheldon Jackson 134; Amit Mishra 2 for 171) & 139 for 3 (Gautam Gambhir 36, Mayank Agarwal 52; Kuldeep Yadav 2 for 47 ) lead India Red 356 all out (Stuart Binny 98, Amit Mishra 65; Ravindra Jadeja 5 for 95 ) by 476 runs.