Bangalore: Rain and bad light disrupted the penultimate day's play in the Duleep Trophy tie between Elite 'A' and Elite 'B' on Saturday. With only 136 minutes of play possible on the day with the match starting four hours delay, Elite 'B' was 64 runs for the loss of four wickets in its second innings. Elite 'B' has to score 79 runs to avoid innings defeat and face a daunting task on wet pitch conditions with intermittent drizzle continuing till Saturday evening. Due to overnight rain, the play could not be resumed in the morning on Saturday due to wet pitch conditions. Under the BCCI norms pitch cannot be covered for Duleep Trophy matches in case of rain. Umpires, M R Singh and Suresh Shastri inspected the pitch thrice at 1000 hrs, 1200 noon and 1300 hrs and declared that play was not possible. When the session resumed at 1330 hrs, Elite 'A' which was 362 for the loss of eight wickets overnight declared its first innings, registering 143 runs vital first innings lead. Elite 'B' which opened its second innings with a shaky start, loosing its opener Wasim Jaffer (5) who was caught by Venugopal Rao off Irafan Pathan (Jr) with only five runs on the score board. Sarandeep Singh of Elite 'A' struck another blow to Elite 'B' dismissing another opener Amit Pagnis for a duck and later sent back A T Rayadu (0) and the side was reeling under pressure loosing three wickets for 23 runs. Elite 'B' lost the wicket of Vinayak Mane who was bowled by Ritender Singh Sodi when the side's score was 34. Arun Yadav (19) and M S K Prasad (15) were batting when play was called off due to rain. The umpires called off the play at 1624 hrs due to bad light in the wake of overcast conditions. With seven balls being bowled after the play was resumed, rain forced suspension of play at 1643 hrs. The umpires who undertook an inspection decided to call off the play as drizzle continued. In the other match at Hyderabad Gymkhana grounds, after gaining the vital first innings lead of 15 runs, Elite 'C' bundled out Plate 'A' for 182 in the second essay and in reply was 24 without loss at close on the penultimate day of the four day Duleep trophy match. Speedsters Ajit Agarkar and SK Triwedi demolished the Plate 'A' second innings by claiming four wickets each after Elite 'C', resuming at 251 for 7, compiled 278 against its opponents' first innings score of 263. Overnight batsman N Doru hit a brilliant 74 with the help of eight hits to the fence and was mainly responsible for Elite 'C' attaining the slender first innings lead. SK Triwedi and Agarkar wrecked the Plate 'A' top order by their raw pace and swing with Agarkar drawing the first blood uprooting Ronald Barrington's stumps when the score was just five runs. At the same score, Triwedi dismissed opener R Jaiswal and skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar in successive deliveries and the first innings hero Abhijit Kale (3) too went down to Triwedi as Plate 'A' was reduced to 14 for 4. Rajesh Kumar and TVS Naidu defied the bowling by adding 110 runs for sixth wicket and tried to stabilise the innings with their patient innings, but Agarkar struck again to dismiss Rajesh for 55 which came off 155 balls. Naidu survived a little longer to script a more fluent and enterprising 75 in 130 balls with eight fours and two mighty sixes but was beaten by the spin of Nilesh. Agarkar and Triwedi ripped through the tail and Plate 'A' was bowled out for 182. In reply, Elite 'C' was 24 without loss and need 144 runs to get an outright win with one full day and 10 wickets in hand. Extras:
Sriram cracks unbeaten ton, Das shines for Elite 'C'
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