Duleep Trophy | India Blue in cruise control after Jadeja's five-for on Day 3
Ravindra Jadeja made the most out of his inclusion the India Blue squad ahead of the New Zealand series as he registered a five-wicket haul denting India Red's first innings with a superb bowling display. Meanwhile, India Red's top scorer Stuart Binny missed his hundred by two runs.
Brief Scores: India Blue 1 for 0 and 693 for 6 dec (Pujara 256*, Jackson 134, Gambhir 94) lead India Red 356 (Binny 98, Mishra 65, Jadeja 5-95) by 338 runs
Building on the momentum from Day 2 after pacer Pankaj Singh's early strikes, India Blue dominated the proceedings on the Day 3. The India Red top order were unable to put up a fight against India Blue's decent bowling attack while the lower order comprising of the likes of Amit Mishra and Kuldeep Yadav restored some pride to their innings with fifties down the order. Early on, Gurkeerat Singh and Stuart Binny registered fifties while the latter will rue his missed chance of scoring a hundred as India Red were all out for 356.
Binny and Amit Mishra salvage pride
Despite playing a few beautiful drives, Shikhar Dhawan and Yuvraj Singh were unable to settle down as Jadeja removed Dhawan by luring him into a drive. After captain Yuvraj Singh departed in similar fashion on Abhimanyu Mithun's bowling, Gurkeerat Singh and Stuart Binny tried to shore up things by putting up a partnership. But, Jadeja was quick to end the 63-run stand for the fifth wicket after he went through the defences of the Gurkeerat Singh, who departed for a well-made 57.
Binny stood firm despite the brilliant spell from Jadeja as the Saurashtra bowler dismissed new batsman Ankush Bains for a small score. Amit Mishra walked in at 194 for 6, but without the hesitation of a lower-order batsman, he launched Jadeja's first delivery for a boundary. Soon after Binny walked back at 98, Mishra combined with Kuldeep Yadav as they shored up India Red's innings with well-made fifties.
Jadeja's brilliant spell
After being included in the squad along with his India teammates Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Amit Mishra, Ravindra Jadeja made sure that he got good match practice with a superb five-wicket haul. On a pitch where his fellow spinners Parvez Rasool and Karn Sharma were ineffectual, Jadeja bowled quicker through the air often clocking around 90kph to get wickets. He started out with overnight batsman Shikhar Dhawan's wicket and then followed it up with the key wickets of Gurkeerat Singh, Ankush Bains, and Stuart Binny.
His dismissal of Gurkeerat Singh was the highlight of the innings. Drifting down the middle, the ball spun brilliantly to knock the off-stump thus ending the Singh's innings at 57. Despite Amit Mishra and Kuldeep Yadav putting up a late resistance, Jadeja made sure that India Red's batting did not have the momentum by removing the set batsmen regularly.
With just two overs left in the day, Gautam Gambhir and Mayank Agarwal walked in and ended the day with 1/0 for India Blue, who now have a lead of 338 runs.
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