CHENNAI : Timely strikes by India Green bowlers led by Ankit Rajpoot restricted India Red to 221/6 on Day 1 of their Duleep Trophy match on Friday. All batsmen got starts, but Ashutosh Singh (57 batting) was the only one to get past 50.Rajpoot took 3/38. His victims included openers RR Sanjay (37) and Abhinav Mukund (34), who shared a partnership of 69 in the day-night match played with pink balls. Baba Aparajith (23), Writtick Chatterjee (22) and Akshay Wadkar also failed to capitalise on starts.
The steady fall of wickets meant India Red hardly got any partnership going. After the opening stand, there was just one more 50-plus stand, worth 61 for the fifth wicket between Ashutosh and Wadkar. Occasional leg-spinner Prashant Chopra broke this stand in the 77th over, by clean bowling Wadkar. Other than Rajpoot and Chopra, K Vignesh and Jalaj Saxena took a wicket each. TN’s Vignesh dismissed statemate Aparajith.Brief scores: India Red 230/6 (A Singh 57 n.o, A Rajpoot 3/38) vs India Green.
