BENGALURU : A gritty 345-ball 106 from Ankit Kalsi helped India Red post 285 against India Blue in their Duleep Trophy clash at Alur Cricket Ground on Saturday. The Red southpaw scored eight boundaries in his patient knock. Karun Nair could add only seven more to his overnight score of 92 before being stumped off left-arm orthodox spinner Saurabh Kumar. Ishan Kishan’s relatively nippy 50 (off 77 balls) also added respectability to Red’s tally.
Though Red posted 285 on the board, the team lost its last six wickets for 96 runs. Off-spinner Jalaj Saxena and pacer Diwesh Pathania scalped three and four wickets respectively.“It is very important for a player to have solid basics while batting,” said Kalsi after the match. “If you don’t have good basics, you are not going to succeed at this level. Also, strike rate does not really matter when I can contribute for my team like I did today.”
When Red’s turn came to bowl, Jaydev Unadkat’s (2/18) display reduced Blue to 74/3 at stumps, leaving them trailing by 211. Ruturaj Gaikwad managed 37, while Snell Patel (0) and Shubman Gill (9) went for single-digit returns.