Kanpur: The second day of the Duleep Trophy match between India Blue and India Green was washed out without a ball being bowled at the Green Park Stadium in Kanpur on Wednesday. Play was slated to begin at 1:30 pm IST but continued rain forced the umpires to call of the day.
The first day was saw India Green’s Parvez Rasool register a five-wicket haul that blew away the Suresh Raina led India Blue for just 177. Despite losing their openers with just 16 on the board, Raina and Bengal’s Manoj Tiwary staged a brief fightback with a 90-run stand but the skipper’s wicket scalped by Rasool led to the beginning of the batting collapse.
From 106/2, they were reduced to 152/7 in no time while Tiwary, who had made a solid 78 was standing at the other end and watching the collapse. He was Rasool’s fifth victim as the Jammu and Kashmir off-spinner completed his ninth five-wicket haul in first class cricket.
In reply, India Green lost three of their top order batsmen with 100 runs on the board. They were in a strong position at the end of the first day and the loss of the second day would definitely hurt their chances. They need to win this match at all costs to have any chance of making it to the final against India Red. For India Blue, a draw would be sufficient to set up a final clash against Dinesh Karthik’s India Red.
While there is still some time left for result, India Green would like to utilize the third day sensibly so that they could gain a control over the match. If the rains once again interrupt, then their chances of a win becomes more slim.
India Blue too need to stay in the contest and not give it away like they did in the first innings. They must battle it out in the remaining two days to draw the match which would push them above India Green to the final.
Brief scores-
India Blue 177 (Manoj Tiwary 78, Suresh Raina 40; Parvez Rasool 5/70) lead India Green 100/3 (Kaushik Gandhi 39, Prashant Chopra 26; Ishant Sharma 1-15) by 77 runs.
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