Duleep trophy | Pujara, Jackson score tons as India Blue finish at 707 on Day 2
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Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson scored tons as India Blue piled up a massive total of 707 at the end of Day 2 against India Green. Capitalizing on the mistakes from Green's players, Blue have virtually ensured that they are into the final with the massive first innings.
Brief Scores: India Blue 707 (Pujara 166, Agarwal 161, Jackson 105, Shreyas 5-173) v India Green
After Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal helped India Blue set up a solid foundation on the opening day, Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson inflicted more misery on India Green's bowlers with their sublime batting effort on Day 2 in Greater Noida. With an overnight score of 336 for 3, the pair capitalized on fielding errors by India Green to guide the team to a mammoth total.
Pujara plays the anchor role
With the surface hardly offering anything for the bowlers, Pujara played a patient knock after resuming the play with his overnight score of 63, navigating carefully through the spinners. Although he never looked troubled at any point of time, Pujara paced his innings in a slow and composed manner. The Saurashtra batsman scored some elegant strokes as he reached his 32nd first-class hundred in style while relying on his solid defence to get past good deliveries.
During his entire innings, Pujara displayed impeccable foot work and sublime technique as his marathon innings brought India Green's bowlers to their knees. At 160, Pujara's near flawless innings came to an end as he dragged Sreejesh Gopal's flighted delivery onto the stumps.
Jackson's explosive hundred
After Pujara departed, Sheldon Jackson attacked the opposition with his explosive hitting, often taking the aerial route to get boundaries. Hitting 7 fours, and 5 sixes en route to his 105 off 190 balls, Jackson received good support from Parvez Rasool and Karn Sharma, as he reached his hundred, capitalizing on the dropped catch on 74 by Murali Vijay. The 29-year old was the last man to go with the scorecard reading 707 before the umpires called it a day.
If India Blue's bowlers can help the team to achieve a lead on Wednesday, they will add one more to their solitary point gained from the washed-out match against India Red, helping them to reach the final.
