Duleep Trophy: Day One

Ashish Nehra: He was off-colour in Mumbai during the Challenger Trophy. He had requested the analyst to do a video analysis of his bowling action. All the effort put in during the interim period has paid dividends. The Delhi paceman ripped apart West batting. The race for the India new ball is really hotting up.

ALSO RANS

JP Yadav: It is really still a surprise that the Railways man has slipped off the India radar for there is no one as consistent as him. Whether it is opening the bowling with his seam-up style or in the middle-order, he always stands up. No wonder, he is one of the pillars of the Railways side. Hence Tuesday’s show with the new ball was not really a surprise for his watchers.

Sanjib Sanyal: He is always overshadowed by the likes of Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Devang Gandhi and Rohan Gavaskar in his Ranji side, Bengal. So when most of the stars are missing, the 26-year-old decided to show his worth on a disappointing day for batting.

MIS-HIT

Gautam Gambhir: Perfect opportunity for him to make those crucial runs before Pakistan land in India. But all those chances were blown away as the left-hander left the stage open for his friendly rival Aakash Chopra. There is really no threat to the India slot, but some more runs never really hurt.

Brief scores

At Lucknow: West: 201 all out (S Parab 31, N Patel 21, Parthiv Patel 55, R Powar 35, Nehra 6-57, Gagandeep Singh 2-28) vs North: 114-2 (V Sehwag 33, A Chopra batting 44)

At Gwalior: East: 194 (Sanyal 62 n.o, Shiv Sunder Das 34, Arindam Das 31, J P Yadav 5-29, Bangar 2-46) vs Central: 74-4 (Shib Shankar Paul 3-11)