Kanpur: Suresh Raina’s comeback route to the Indian team got off to decent start as the India Blue captain struck a fluent half-century to resurrect the innings on the second day of the Duleep Trophy match here.
Raina played an important innings after Blues lost Gohel (32) and Tiwari (20) for 86 on board. The left-hander, striving for a comeback, started his innings on a positive note and resurrected the Blues innings with Hanuma Vihari.
Raina scored his half-century off 82 deliveries during which he hit seven boundaries.
Hanuma Vihari remained unbeaten on 86 to orchestrate a solid reply, taking India Blue to 216 for three, in reply to India Red's 383 all out on the second day.
Opening the batting alongside Samit Gohel (32), Vihari played patient knock to score his runs off 163 balls with the help of 14 boundaries.
At the close of play, Deepak Hooda was giving Vihari company on 23 off 41 balls.
Earlier resuming at 291 for nine, overnight batsman Baba Indrajith (200) and Vijay Gohil (34 not out) shared 92 runs for the last wicket to take India Red to 383.
Coming on to bat at the overnight score of 120, Indrajit added 80 more runs to his tally while Gohil gave him the perfect support from the other end to prolong India Red's innings.
Indrajith scored at a brisk pace and struck as many as 20 boundaries and six hits over the fence during his 280-ball knock.
For India Blue, medium pacer Ankit Rajpoot scalped three wickets for 56 runs, while Tiwary (2/30) and left-arm pacer Jaydev Unadkat (2/72) picked up two wickets apiece.
India Blue now trail India Red by 167 runs with seven wickets in hand and two full day's play remaining.
Brief Scores:
India Red: 383 all out in 108.3 overs (Baba Indrajith 200; Ankit Rajpoot 3/56).
India Blue: 216 for three in 61 overs (Hanuma Vihari 86 not out, Suresh Raina 52; Vijay Gohil 1/50).