@DuleepTrophy : Agarwal hits ton as India Blue batsmen dominate opening day
Greater Noida, Sep 4 (IANS) Mayank Agarwal struck a century as India Blue batsmen dominated on the opening day of their Duleep Trophy clash against India Green at the Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground here on Sunday.
Opening the batting along with India Blue captain Gautam Gambhir, Agarwal scored 161 runs off 218 deliveries, smashing 21 boundaries and a six along the way.
Gambhir was also in excellent form at the other end, scoring 90 runs off 193 balls with 10 hits to the fence.
Cheteshwar Pujara (63 not out) also struck a half-century and was at the crease along with Abhimanyu Mithun (4 not out) as India Blue reached a score of 336/3 in their first innings at the close of the first day’s play.
Pacers Ashok Dinda (1/54) and Jasprit Bumrah (1/61) were the only India Green bowlers to taste success on the day.
Agarwal and Gambhir put together an opening partnership of 212 runs before an attempted second run off pacer Ashok Dinda found the latter short of his crease thanks to an excellent bit of fielding by Ankit Rajpoot.
But the celebrations of the India Green players soon turned to dismay as Pujara walked in and proceeded to put on a partnership of 103 runs with Agarwal to consolidate India Blue’s position.
Agarwal was finally dismissed towards the end of the day’s play when a short pitched delivery from Dinda saw him find Rajpoot at backward square leg.
Siddesh Lad could not last long, scoring just one run before he pulled a short pitched delivery from Bumrah to Jalaj Saxena at backward square leg.
Brief scores: India Blue 336/3 (Mayank Agarwal 161, Gautam Gambhir 90, Cheteshwar Pujara 63 n.o.; Ashok Dinda 1/54, Jasprit Bumrah 1/61) vs India Green.
