Greater Noida: It was an inauspicious start to the inaugural day/night Duleep Trophy match with a major floodlight malfunction grabbing more attention than pink ball making its first class debut in India.
A power failure saw two stoppages in play with the second one leading to lights going off completely in a couple of floodlight towers. There was a total 78 minutes of interruption due to power tripping in two towers in two separate phases.
Yuvraj Singh’s India Red lasted only 48.2 overs as they were bowled out for 161 with Sandeep Sharma grabbing 4/62. Left-handed opener Abhinav Mukund was the only batsman who looked in control during his innings of 77 off 116 balls that had 12 boundaries.
Incidentally, India Red were all out even before the floodlights became functional.
The Greens fared no better as pacer Nathu Singh rattled the top order with pace and swing under lights leaving them at 36/3. Nathu had figures of 3/15 in first four overs having accounted for Robin Uthappa (1), Jalaj Saxena (10) and Rajat Paliwal (1).
Nathu got Robin with a delivery that pitched on three quarter length which came back sharply, breaching his defence. Jalaj chased a wide delivery while Paliwal also got an inswinger that trapped him in front.
One thing was evident that the pink ball swung a bit more under lights than in the afternoon session. The entire focus during the duration of play was on the pink Kookaburra.
On the positive side, the ball held its shine during the 48 overs in the first innings.
More than the pink Kookaburra, it was poor application by the India Red batsmen that saw them lose wickets at regular intervals. The pitch had an even grass cover and the Green bowlers mostly bowled three-quarter or fuller length deliveries to get wickets.
Scorecard
India Red 1st innings: KS Bharat c Uthappa b Sandeep Sharma 3, A Mukund b Ojha 77, S.D. Chatterjee c Patel b Sandeep Sharma 5, Yuvraj Singh c Paliwal b Rajpoot 4, Gurkeerat Singhc Patel b Rajpoot 0, A. Karthik c Gopal b Ojha 1, A. Wakhare c Paliwal b Dinda 7, Kuldeep Yadav b Sandeep Sharma 10, Anureet Singh c Tiwary b Sandeep Sharma 32, I. Pandey b Ojha 17, N.B. Singh (not out) 03. Extras: (lb5) 5. Total: (in 48.2 overs) 161.
FoW: 1-11, 2-33, 3-38, 4-42, 5-49, 6-60, 7-94, 8-144, 9-144, 10-161.
Bowling: Dinda 11-1-33-1, Sandeep Sharma 15-3-62-4, Rajpoot 8-3-16-2, P. Ojha 5.2-0-19-3, Saxena 7-2-10-0, S. Gopal 2-0-16-0.
India Green (1st innings): R. Uthappa b Singh 1, J. Saxena c Bharat b Singh 10, P. Patel (batting) 20, R. Paliwal lbw b Singh 1, S. Raina (batting) 17. Extras:(lb1, nb5) 6. Total: ( for 3 wkts, in 17 overs) 55
FoW: 1-1, 2-25, 3-31
Bowling:Anureet Singh 4-0-17-0 (3nb) N.B. Singh-4-0-15-3, Kuldeep Yadav 5-2-12-0, I.C. Pandey 4-0-10-0
