Late fightback saves Tripura

Instead openers Rajib Saha and Sourav Dubey acted like saving the game from Ball One as the scorecard read a paltry 69 for 1 at lunch, and trickled towards 206 for 7 — the score could have been worse, and Tripura were indeed left to save their day.

For Services pacers Rakesh Kumar and Hari Prasad, there weren’t too many things happening in the shortened two hours of first session — play started late due to moisture in the pitch—apart from a streak of leg-before appeals that didn’t interest the umpires.

But then the batsmen never looked to have settled down; Rajib Saha’s 58-run knock-the highest for the day—came off 190 balls and he looked like playing the new ball throughout his stay —poking at deliveries outside his reach and failing to read the spinners keeping the Services bowlers interested. Saha’s first runs in front of the wicket came through a boundary that beat mid-on, taking him to his half-century.

Left-arm spinner Suvra Karmakar was the first to convert the interest when he snared Dubey at point and later his arm-ball rattled Timir Chanda’s stumps in the thirty-ninth over.

Left-arm pacer Kumar, after missing Rajib Saha’s blade on numerous occasions, finally got one with a gentle away-swinger that landed into Sunil Tomar’s palms at first slip. After the untidy, but useful innings’close, the floodgates opened for the visitors.

As the sun stared directly overhead, another arm ball from Karmarkar trapped former Tripura skipper Rajesh Banik in front in his next over. Doing justice to the innovative field placing, Kumar contrived with Yashpal Singh at second slip to send Subhal Chowdhury for a duck. Tripura’s deep batting order began to look shallow after batting mainstay Nishit Shetty hit on the full straight to Madhushudan Reddy at covers off Kumar after a tailored 34 that included five boundaries.

Tripura were paying the price for going for the shots, albeit at a wrong time. The prolonged post-lunch session reaped the heaviest harvest for Services, made easy by skipper Saha’s illogical attempt to go past mid-off with his side tottering on 152 for six as Kumar had his fourth victim off another innocuous delivery.

The lost logic, however, returned through Abhijit Dey’s flicks and drives in a dramatic turnaround of the day. The tall right-hander, along with Rajib Dutta avoided further damage putting on unbeaten 54 runs for the eighth wicket. He kept leaving everything outside off-stump until he found them good enough to drive. With the new ball taken in the 86th over, his strokeplay matched the gloss.

If Dey was better than most of his team mates in his unbeaten 73-ball 32, including seven hits to the fence by the end of the day, Dutta had already tackled 68 deliveries for his 22. But the challenge begins again on Day Two, as much as the need to extend their fightback in search of that respectable first innings score.

Brief scores: Tripura 206 for 7 in 91 overs (Rajib Saha 58, Nishit Shetty 34, Abhijit Dey batting 33; Rakesh Kumar 4/68, Suvra Karmakar 3/43) vs Services.