Bengaluru: India Red defeated India Green by an innings and 38 runs in the final on Saturday to clinch the Duleep trophy title courtesy of right-arm-off-spinner Akshay Wakhare's brilliant five-wicket haul.
On the fourth and final day of the match, India Red bundled out India Green for a mere 119 runs inside 40 overs at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. Only Siddhesh Lad (42) and Akshath Reddy (33) managed to stay at the crease for a while as none of the India Green batsmen were able to score off Wakhare and Avesh Khan. The duo finished with figures of 5/13 and 3/38 respectively.
Earlier in the day, India Red started from their overnight score of 345/6, 114 runs ahead of India Green's first-innings total of 231. Aditya Sarvate and Jaydev Unadkat, who had remained unbeaten on 30 and 10 on Stumps on Day 3, managed to add another 8 and 22 respectively to their individual scores as India Red were eventually bundled out for 388 runs.
Abhimanyu Easwaran, who played a stupendous knock of 153, was the leading run-scorer for India Red. Apart from him, Ishan Kishan (39), Aditya Sarwate (38) and captain Priyank Panchal (33) also made noticeable contributions to help the team reach a total which ultimately they defended to clinch the trophy.
Dharmendrasinh Jadeja and Ankit Rajpoot were the pick of the bowlers for India Green as they both scalped 3 wickets each. Left-arm seamer Tanveer-Ul-Haq contributed with two wickets, including that of Easwaran while Mayank Markande also picked one wicket. Easwaran was adjudged the Player of the Match.
