India Red dominate day 3 of Duleep Trophy final

India Red dominated the third day's play of the Duleep Trophy final, reaching 187/7 at stumps, with an overall lead of 371 runs against India Blue at the Ekana International Cricket Stadium here on Wednesday.

Washington Sundar (42 not out) and Siddharth Kaul (5 not out) went undefeated when the umpires decided to dislodge the bails for the night.

Earlier, resuming from their overnight score of 185/5, India Blue's overnight duo of opener Abhimanyu Easwaran and Jaydev Unadkat stretched their sixth wicket stand to 140 runs, with Easwaran reaching his fourth first class ton.

The Bengal right-hander smashed 15 boundaries in his 171-ball 127 while Unadkat played the perfect second fiddle, scoring a quickfire 90-ball 83, lashed with seven fours and four massive sixes.

The duo looked threatening but it was once again the India Red spin duo of Sundar (5/94) and Vijay Gohil (5/121), who turned the tide in favour of the Dinesh Karthik-led Reds to skittle the opposition out for 299.

With a first innings lead of 184, the India Red side had a forgettable start to their second essay, losing four wickets for mere 58 runs but Baba Indrajith (59 from 116 balls) and Sundar stabilised the ship with a 77-run fifth wicket stand.

Towards the end, Sundar along with Suryakumar Yadav (22) put on 29 runs before the latter departed.

For India Blue, the spin duo of Bhargav Bhatt (3/75) and Akshay Wakhare (2/53) shared five wickets between them.

Brief Scores: India Red: 483, 187/7 (Baba Indrajith 59, Washington Sundar 42 not out; Bharghav Bhatt 3/75) vs India Blue: 299 (Abhimanyu Easwaran 127, Jaydev Unadkat 83; Vijay Gohil 5/121, Washington Sundar 5/94).

--IANS

tri/vm