Ground reality adds to Duleep Trophy farce
Daily Excelsior
08:30 AM Sep 14, 2016 IST
Greater Noida, Sep 13: The poor drainage facilities at Shahid Vijay Singh Patheek Stadium again came to the fore as a total of four hours and 45 minutes of play was wasted during the fourth day of the Duleep Trophy final that has already turned into a drudgery.���� For the record, India Blue scored 139/3 in their second innings as the lead swelled up to 476 with win being a mere formality now.���� Gautam Gambhir (36, 5x4) couldn't get his fifth successive half century. Nevertheless, Gambhir finished the tournament with 356 runs from five innings at an average of 71.20.���� Mayank Agarwal (52) again had a good outing while Rohit Sharma (22) also got some valuable batting practice.���� But the highlight was poor facilities that turned the fourth evening into an absolute farce.���� After a spell of morning showers which left the ground in deplorable condition, it took four hours to make it fit for a competitive match.���� Despite bright sunshine in the afternoon and the three super soppers being at use, the square leg and gully areas continued to remain wet.���� Even some of the UPCA officials admitted that a lot of work still needed to be done to address the problems related to drainage facilities.���� Finally, the match began at 6:30 pm under lights but during the 7th over left-arm seamer Pradeep Sangwan complained that a particular area - a few feet away from popping crease at the far end - was soft.���� The umpires inspected and found the area to be completely soft which could have caused serious injuries like ankle twist.���� After inspection it was found that it was so soft that a hole was being created.���� It led to another 45-minute delay as the groundsmen were not aware initially of this wet portion. A few buckets of sand was required to fix the problem before the match again started at 8:15 pm.���� Gambhir hit a few boundaries but was done in by a Kuldeep Yadav straighter one after the opening stand yielded 67 runs -- the duo's first sub hundred partnership.���� Rohit Sharma, who was sent ahead of Cheteshwar Pujara, was shaky initially before he played a glorious cover drive off Amit Mishra and a straight six off Kuldeep into the sightscreen.���� Mayank Agarwal, on the other hand, completed his 11th first-class half century before being holed out in the deep to become Kuldeep's 16th victim of the tournament.���� Mayank himself had a great tournament with 420 runs in five innings at an average of 84. (PTI)
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