Duleep Trophy | Kuldeep Yadav’s five-for leaves India Red on the brink of victory on day 3

08/25/2016

Chasing an improbable target of 497, India Green were cruising at 122/1 before chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav turned the match around for India Red by picking five wickets in a jiffy. India Green ended the third day 280 runs away from a win with just three wickets in hand.

Brief Scores: India Red 161 and 486 all out in 116.5 overs (Mukund 169, Chatterjee 114; Gopal 5/58) lead India Green 151 and 217/7 in 46 overs (Uthappa 72, Raina 42*; Yadav 5/55) by 280 runs.

Resuming from their overnight score of 344/3, India Red suffered an early blow as their top-scorer Abhinav Mukund was dismissed for 169 by Ashok Dinda, whose tactic of bowling round the wicket worked perfectly. India Red were still in a commanding position though with Gurkeerat Singh batting beautifully, but Shreyas Gopal produced a magical spell of leg spin bowling to give his team a glimmer of hope.

The 22-year-old dismissed Arun Karthik with a flipper, Gurkeerat was beaten by a well tossed up delivery that dipped and turned, Akshay Wakhare was caught in front of the wicket by a googly, Kuldeep Yadav was dismissed with a flatter delivery and then he completed his five-wicket haul with another googly to clean up Nathu Singh. India Red were bowled out for 486, but it still gave them an enormous lead of 496 runs.

Chasing an improbable target, India Green came out of the block with all guns blazing. Robin Uthappa and Jalaj Saxena got them off to a superb start with an opening partnership of 66 runs from just 56 deliveries. Uthappa, in particular, was in a destructive mood, and he brought up his half-century in the 20^th over with a fantastic straight drive down the ground off Ishwar Pandey.

India Green were cruising along nicely at that point with Uthappa and Parthiv Patel forming a 50-run partnership for the second wicket, but it all went haywire in a jiffy. Kuldeep Yadav produced a stunning spell and ran through the middle order of Indian Green like a knife through butter.

The 21-year-old chinaman bowler spun his web of magic, and India Green slumped from 122/1 to 199/7. India Green ended the third day 280 runs away from a win with just three wickets in hand. Captain Suresh Raina is fighting a lone battle out their in the middle at the moment, but he is unlikely to save his team from a convincing defeat as we head into the fourth day of the Test.

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