India’s Duleep Trophy began, partly under floodlights, on Tuesday, experimenting with the pink ball in the hope of reviving Test cricket with day-night matches in the long run. The first-ever day-night Test match, which saw Australia beat New Zealand by three wickets in Adelaide last November, got mixed reviews.
The Duleep Trophy, a five-day triangular competition, which announces the start of the Indian domestic season, began with Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina facing each other in the first match. Singh, who was captain of India Red, won the toss against India Green and chose to bat first keeping in mind the pink ball debut.
And the pink ball did not disappoint. Being played at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground, 17 wickets fell by the end of day’s play. Singh’s side was bowled out for 161 with Sandeep Sharma being the first bowler to bag a wicket with a pink ball. Sharma got Srikar Bharat out for three, with Robin Uthappa taking an easy catch at first slip. Sharma ended with figures of 4/62, topping the wicket-taking charts. Pragyan Ojha bagged three wickets, with Ankit Rajpoot taking two. Ashok Dinda could manage to take only one wicket.
The only batsman that could read the pink ball well was Abhinav Mukund, who scored a brilliant 77 to help India Red get past 150. However, there was more in store on for the crowd that had come to see a domestic match. Raina’s team failed to capitalise on their performance with the ball. They lost three wickets in quick succession with the scorecard reading 31/3, owing to Nathu Singh bagging all three. Then, there was a halt in play owing to bad floodlights. However, play began and time was extended.
In came Raina who, along with Parthiv Patel, tried to stabilise the innings. But then it was time for spinner Kuldeep Yadav to come to the fore. Yadav dismissed Patel for 24 and then got the prized wicket of Raina, bowling the captain out for 35. He then dismissed Shreyas Gopal for a duck. Eventually, India Green reached 100 for the loss of six wickets.
India Green ended the day on 116/7, trailing by 45 runs. Day two promises to be an enticing day of domestic cricket.