Kuldeep’s guile puts India Red in driver’s seat

By Kushan Sarkar Greater Noida, Aug 25 (PTI) Young chinaman bowler KuldeepYadav kept the opposition batsmen on tenterhooks with a maidenfive wicket haul as he took India Red on the cusp of anoutright victory against the Green team in the inauguralDay/Night Duleep Trophy encounter here this evening. Chasing a mammoth victory target of 497, the Green teamwas tottering at 217/7 at the end of penultimate evening withanother 280 runs to win the match. Suresh Raina was at the crease batting on 35. The Red team scored a commendable 486 in their firstinnings riding on twin hundreds from Abhinav Mukund (169) andSudip Chatterjee (114). However the score reached close to 500due to Gurkeerat Singh Mann’s brisk 82 off 96 balls. The third evening certainly belonged to Kuldeep whotroubled all the batsmen with his deception. He ended withfigures of 5/55 in 13 overs. The pink Kookaburra did not lose its shine and therewasn’t much turn on offer. But Kuldeep, whose stock deliveryis the wrong ‘un, was able to deceive the batsmen with his dipand drift. Opener Jalaj Saxena (26) played on trying to a cut anIshwar Pandey delivery after a brisk 66 run opening stand withRobin Uthappa, who blazed his way to a 72 off 66 balls. Hisinnings had 10 fours and a down the ground six off AkshayWakhare. Uthappa looked in good touch as he got some flowingstraight drives of pacers especially Anureet Singh. He added 56 for second wicket with Parthiv Patel (21) whohad a forgettable outing infront and behind the stumps. India Green, who were cruising along at 122/1, slumped to131/4 as Kuldeep shared three wickets with addition of nineruns. First to go was Uthappa as he tried to play forward andwas foxed by the drift. The ball turned away from him to takean outside edge with Yuvraj pouching onto a low catch at firstslip. Then it was Rajat Paliwal (0) who was adjudged leg beforeto a delivery that broke back to catch him on the backfoot. Parthiv was done in by the dip as he remained inside thecrease and was hit on the back leg. Skipper Raina and Saurabh Tiwary (31) had a partnershipof 54 runs for the fifth wicket before the burly Jharkhandbatsman misjudged the length as he was rooted to crease to betrapped plumb in-front. Kuldeep completed a well deserved five-for when he gotSandeep Sharma (0) bowled with a delivery that came in. PTIKHS BSBS