Duleep Trophy | Siddhesh Lad, Sanjay Ramaswamy elevate India Red's performance with half centuries

Having chosen to bat after winning the toss, India Blue skipper Abhinav Mukund was removed from the crease by Jaydev Unadkat on only the second ball of the game. The match on whole, however, was a slow affair. While runs were not easy to come by in the first few overs, Baba Aparajith and Sanjay Ramaswamy together added 116 runs for the second wicket by showing their intent.

At a point, Ramaswamy was at 48, while Aparajith had scored 37. Though their going was at a much slower pace, it was the most appropriate approach as they elevated India Red to 123 for 3.

Ashutosh Singh and Siddhesh Lad came on the crease with the aim of making the run-scoring faster. Singh, however had to retire at 34 as he was hurt during the play, while Lad went on to score an impressive unbeaten 83 for India Red. He struck eleven fours and a couple of sixes to improve his score tally and India Red ended up with 256 for 4 at the end of the day.

Brief scores: India Red 256/4 (Siddhesh Lad 83*, Sanjay Ramaswamy 72; Saurabh Kumar 1-68) vs India Blue.