BENGALURU: India Red thrashed India Green by an innings and 38 runs to clinch the Duleep Trophy on Saturday. The title triumph, though, didn’t spark much celebrations. In fact, it was Green, who apparently gifted the match to their opponents on Day 4 going down from 59/2 to 119/9 with injured Mayank Markande not coming to bat.
A closer look at the tournament, which started last month, not only reveals disillusionment among players but also lack of commitment. However, it would not be fair to point fingers on the players, who only meet a day or two before the event starts. There is no concept of team in this current format, which was adopted in the 2016-17 season. Before that, it was primarily played on zonal format — north, south, east, west, central.
“The zonal concept was better as players know each other and gel quickly, which isn’t the case here,” said Akshay Wakhare. He claimed the last five wickets to bowl out Green, whose second innings lasted only 191 minutes, putting a question mark on their application and shot selections. For instance, Tanveer Ul-Haq went for a slog sweep off Wakhare only to be caught at the deep. Next ball, Rajpoot was stumped by Ishan Kishan.
“Here, you cannot force things (as captain). If I’m playing for Vidarbha, I can tell the boys you have to do this. I don’t think the emotional connect is there with the team,” said Green skipper Faiz Fazal.
Brief scores: India Green 231 & 119 (Wakhare 5/13) lost to India Red 388.