Duleep Trophy 2019 | India Red in control at end of day one in rain-hit final

Having won the toss and chose to bat, Faiz Fazal’s team suffered a batting collapse that saw them reeling at 147/8 in a rain-marred day one of the title clash of this season’s Duleep Trophy on Wednesday. 27-year-old Jaydev Unadkat produced a consistent brand of bowling to regularly pick up wickets and help India Red end on top at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore.

Both the openers seemed to get off to a decent start on what looked like batsmen-friendly conditions but Unadkat struck early as he trapped the skipper in front of the wickets, sending him back to the pavilion for a paltry score of 12. A good partnership was beginning to build when Sandeep Warrier disrupted the moment, having Dhruv Shorey caught behind the wickets for 23 with 53 runs up on the board for the team.

There onwards, the wickets just kept tumbling as Unadkat got Siddhesh Lad’s wicket on the very first ball of his innings before Akshath Reddy’s run out just 11 runs later had them restricted to 65/4. A spell of rain helped India Green catch a break and recollect themselves but just when Akashdeep Nath and Akshay Wadekar seemed to bring life back to the game with a cautious partnership of 27, they fell in quick succession to Aditya Sarwate and Undadkat respectively.

Avesh Khan caught and bowled D Jadeja for a run-a-ball 15 before Unadkat picked his fourth and final scalp of the day by sending Rajesh Mohanty off the pitch for naught. Mayank Markande and Tanveer-Ul Haq brought some stability to the innings as they built a stand for the ninth-wicket before rain again disrupted play at 133/8. Play did resume but bad light led to the umpires declaring stumps soon after, as only 49 overs could be bowled on the day. The two are still unbeaten on the crease having conjured the game’s best partnership so far of 35 runs, with Markande looking in fine touch with an essential 32 runs.