India Red beat India Green by 219 runs on Friday to win the first match of the Duleep Trophy, being played with the pink ball in Greater Noida.
Day four began with India Red needing three wickets to win the game. India Green were set a huge target of 497 runs to win, owing to the heroics of Abhinav Mukund and Sudip Chatterjee, who scored imperious tons for India Red. Mukund hit 77 in the first innings and splendid 169 in the second innings to bag the Man of the Match award.
Captain of India Green Suresh Raina and Ashok Dinda walked out on Friday with the team requiring another 280 runs to win, after ending day three on 217/7. However, Dinda fell for 10 to the crafty bowling of Nathu Singh. In came Pragyan Ojha to partner Raina, who tried his best to take the fight to the Yuvraj Singh-led side. But the pressure eventually got to Raina and he fell for 90 with Kuldeep Singh bagging his sixth wicket. Ojha lasted for only two balls after that and was caught by Mukund at long-on after he misread Akshay Wakhare’s delivery.
With this win, India Red bagged six points and will now face India Blue, led by Gautam Gambhir, on August 29.
Brief scores:
India Red 161 and 486 beat India Green 151 and 217 (Robin Uthappa 72, Suresh Raina 90, Kuldeep Yadav 6/88) by 219 runs.