Duleep Trophy 2018: Ashutosh Singh shines with unbeaten 57 as India Red reach 230 for 6 at stumps on Day 1

Dindigul (Tamil Nadu): Madhya Pradesh batsman Ashutosh Singh made a patient, unbeaten 57 as India Red reached 230 for six on the opening day of the Duleep Trophy match against India Green here. India Red captain Abhinav Mukund won the toss and elected to bat and provided the team a solid start as he put on 69 runs with Vidarbha opener Sanjay R Ramaswamy. He fell to a catch by Prashanth Chopra for 34 to give Ankit Rajpoot his first wicket. [caption id=“attachment_4393551” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] Test discard Mukund and Ramaswamy hit a flurry of boundaries as the rival bowlers strayed in direction and the 50 came up in the 15th over. The lanky Rajpoot, who provided the breakthrough by snaring the left-handed Mukund, bowled impressively and kept the batsmen in check and captured three wickets including that of the other opener Ramaswamy (37). All the batsmen got starts but failed to capitalise as India Green bowlers kept chipping away. Ashuthosh displayed a lot of patience as his 194-ball knock, which included just two boundaries. He was involved in a 61-run partnership with wicket-keeper Akshay Wadkar (29) at the NPR College ground. After the exit of Wadkar, Ashutosh and Shahbaz Nadeem (17) put on 23 before Rajpoot had the latter caught by Gurkeerat Singh Mann. Rajneesh Gurbani (batting 6) and Ashutosh ensured that India Red did not suffer any further damage before close of play. Jalaj Saxena, Prashant Chopra and K Vignesh took one wicket each. Brief scores: India Red 230 for 6 in 90 overs (Ashutosh Singh 57 batting, Sanjay Ramaswamy 37, Abhinav Mukund 34, Ankit Rajpoot 3 for 38) vs India Green.