Big win takes India Blue to final

50 overs India Blue 351 for 2 (Jaffer 143, Mukund 114) beat India Green (Srivastava 100, Anirudha 63) by 88 runs

A 265-run opening stand - the highest such partnership in the Challenger Trophy - between Wasim Jaffer and Abhinav Mukund flattened India Green and carried India Red into the final. Jaffer top-scored with a run-a-ball 143 and Mukund continued his amazing run of form with 114 as Red put up a mammoth total of 351 for 2. After Tanmay Srivastava and Srikkanth Anirudha added a century opening stand in good time, Red meandered without much purpose and ended up with 263 for 9.

After Blue opted to bat, Mukund and Jaffer played out the first four overs quietly. In the fifth, bowled by Vikramjeet Malik, they took 18 and increased the rate from there on. Dhawal Kulkarni, who began very tidily, should have had Jaffer on 28 but dropped an easy return catch during a maiden ninth over. Kulkarni lost his line hereon and Jaffer went on to cross his half-century off off 59 balls. Mukund's half-century came up off 71 balls.

The pair batted very well in tandem, taking smart singles and rotating the strike. They maintained a constant run-rate and eased past the 200 mark in the 34th over just after Mukund was put down by Suresh Raina on 80.

When Mukund fell at the end of the 41st over, MS Dhoni strode out and hit a breezy unbeaten 34 from 25 balls, while Yusuf Pathan biffed 34 from 18 to further deflate the attack. Malik, who opened the attack for Green, bore the brunt of the powerful Red batting. His first three overs cost 32, his fourth went for 11, and when he came back for a third spell after 42 overs Dhoni and Pathan took him apart. Malik had the most expensive figures of the innings (7-0-81-0), and none of the overs bowlers, apart from Anirudha, went for less than 5.60.

The chase lost steam after the first 15 overs, at which time Red were 96 for 0. Until here Anirudha led the scoring with 56 from 44 balls, but Harbhajan Singh got him to drag one on soon after. Harbhajan and Yusuf Pathan tied down proceedings well and Srivastava shut shop and appeared content to play out the overs. He was sixth out at 237 for a 133-ball 100, after which Red went on to finish on 263 for 9. Once Anirudha was dismissed there seemed no conscious effort to even attempt to chase down a massive target.

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India Blue pip India Red in Challenger

Suresh Kumar scored a match-winning 87 to help India Blue beat India Red by one-wicket at the Challenger Trophy.
Suresh first shared a crucial 57-run fourth wicket stand with pinch-hitter Harbhajan (36 off 36) and then added 55 alongwith Mahendra Singh Dhoni (37 off 40) to set the platform for the run chase.

Out-of-form Ishant Sharma and leg-spinner Ravindra Jadeja were the pick of the bowlers for India Red. Ishant answered his detractors in style, picking up four wickets for 56 runs from his 10 overs, while Jadeja scalped two victims, giving away 36 runs.

Earlier, riding on Harshad Khadiwale's 51-ball 55 and Ishant Jaggi's 54, India Red posted a competitive 248 runs on the board.

For India Blue, Ashok Dinda and Harbhajan Singh picked up three wickets apiece, giving away 52 and 40 runs respectively to bowl out the Red team in 44.4 overs.

India Blue's run chase, however, did not start on a good note as they lost their first three wickets with team score at 49.

But then came in Harbhajan, who used his long handle to great effect and together with Suresh set the stage for the others to follow.

Harbhajan was the aggressor among the two as he found the fence six times, while Suresh struck seven boundaries and a six in his 113-ball innings.

Dhoni also chipped in with useful contribution at the middle, hitting two fours in his 40-ball stay at the crease.

The match, however, went to the wire when Jadeja got dangerman Yusuf Pathan's (15) wicket with India Blue needing 24 more runs to win with three wickets in hand.

The matter got worse for India Blue when Jalaj Saxena was caught by Khadiwale off Aswin's in the last ball of the 47th over.

New man in S Sreesanth compounded the problem for India Blue as he made a first ball duck, caught by Vijay off Jadeja.

But Dinda and Trivedi played sensibly and without going for any extravagant shot, dealt in ones and two to snatch the victory with three balls to spare.

Earlier, Electing to bat, India Red made an explosive start to their innings with Shikhar Dhawan (39 off 39 balls) and Murali Vijay (44 off 35) putting on 79 runs for the opening wicket in just 10 overs.

Vijay was the first to depart, caught by Ojha off Harbhajan in the 11th over but not before hitting four boundaries and two sixes.

Twenty runs later Dhawan too joined his opening partner in the dressing room, giving Ojha his second catch of the day off Siddharth Trivedi's bowling. He struck four fours in his run-a-ball innings.

Captain S Badrinath failed to make any impact as he was run out on four. But from there on Khadiwale and Jaggi played cautiously to add 49 runs for the fourth wicket and set the platform for the total.

The dangerous looking partnership was finally broken by Dinda when he held Khadiwale at the hands of Kedar Jadhav.

Yusuf Pathan then got the important wicket of Jaggi, caught by Ojha with India Red scoreboard reading 212 for five wickets after 33.5 overs.

But the India Red lower order failed to capitalise on the platform set by their top order as apart from Ravindra Jadeja (22 off 38) R Aswin (11 off 20) could score double figures.

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