India Blue win by 91 runs in Challenger Trophy

India Blue captain Virender Sehwag on Saturday scored a fine 75 to take his team into the N K P Salve Challenger Trophy final where they will meet India Red on Sunday.

57-ball brisk knock, which contained 14 boundaries and one six and helped him earn a recall to the Indian ODI team, India Blue beat India Green by 91 runs.

The final will be played at the Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium in Motera, near here.

India Blue won the toss and scored 330 for eight wickets in 50 overs and then their bowlers bowled out India Green for 239 in 38.2 overs to win with 11.4 overs to spare.

Besides Sehwag, Arjun Yadav (65, 75 balls, 6x4s, 2x6s), wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik (65, 48 balls, 7x4s, 1×6) and Suresh Raina (64, 51 balls, 4x4s, 2x6s) also hit half-centuries for the winners.

Karthik’s knock, however, failed to keep him in the ODI team announced during the day for the first two matches against Pakistan starting Nov 5.

The selectors, who met here, also ignored Raina’s claim for a comeback. He had also scored a fine 92 against India Red on Thursday.

Also starring for India Blue Saturday were off-spinner Ramesh Powar and leg-spinner Amit Mishra who took three wickets apiece while Joginder Sharma took two.

For India Green, Parthiv Patel, who has been in fine form lately, scored 53 (50 balls, 8x4s) and Rohit Sharma made a 47-ball 48 (6x4s, 1×6).

SCOREBOARD

India Green vs. India Blue (day/night), at Sardar Patel (Gujarat) Stadium, Motera, Ahmedabad

India Blue:

Virender Sehwag b Abdulla 75

Swapnil Asnodkar c Parthiv Patel b Pankaj 8

Arjun Yadav c Pujara b Tiwary 65

Suresh Raina c Tiwary b Chawla 64

Dinesh Karthik b M. Patel 65

Niraj Patel c Tiwary b Chawla 22

Ramesh Powar c M. Patel b Abdulla 0

Joginder Sharma run out (Sharma) 2

Amit Mishra not out 9

Saurabh Bandekar not out 12

Extras: (leg byes 5, wides 3) 8

Total: (for 8 wickets in 50 overs) 330

Fall of wickets: 1-23 (Asnodkar, 5.2 overs), 2-112 (Sehwag, 18.2), 3-197 (Yadav, 30.4), 4-229 (Raina, 35.4), 5-292 (Patel, 43.6), 6-293 (Powar, 44.5), 7-307 (Joginder, 46.1), 8-313 (Karthik, 47.2)

Bowling:

Munaf Patel 10 1 52 1 (1w)

Pankaj Singh 9 0 54 1

Abhishek Nayar 3 0 35 0 (1w)

Piyush Chawla 10 0 60 2

Iqbal Abdulla 9 0 56 2

Yusuf Pathan 4 0 26 0

Manoj Tiwary 3 0 25 1

Rohit Sharma 2 0 17 0

India Green:

Yusuf Pathan c Asnodkar b Joginder 6

Srikkanth Anirudha b Joginder 13

Parthiv Patel run out (Joginder) 53

Rohit Sharma st Karthik b Powar 48

Manoj Tiwary b Powar 16

Abhishek Nayar c Karthik b Mishra 22

Cheteshwar Pujara c sub b Powar 4

Piyush Chawla lbw b Mishra 18

Iqbal Abdulla not out 14

Pankaj Singh c Patel b Mishra 10

Munaf Patel c Patel b Raina

Extras: (b 2, w 15, nb 7) 24

Total: (all out in 38.2 overs) 239

Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Pathan, 2.2 overs), 2-46 (Anirudha, 6.4), 3-127 (Patel, 19.4), 4-131 (Sharma, 20.0), 5-174 (Tiwary, 24.3), 6-178 (Nayar, 25.3), 7-185 (Pujara, 28.2), 8-204 (Chawla, 31.5), 9-224 (Pankaj, 36.1)

Bowling:

Joginder Sharma 5 0 29 2 (2w)

Yo Mahesh 6 0 48 0 (1nb, 1w)

Saurabh Bandekar 4.3 0 44 0 (1nb, 1w)

Ramesh Powar 10 0 45 3 (1nb, 7w)

Amit Mishra 10 0 50 3

Virender Sehwag 2.3 0 21 0

Suresh Raina 0.2 0 0 1

Result: India Blue win by 91 runs

Man of the Match: Virender Sehwag

Umpires: S.N. Bandekar and A.V. Jayaprakash

TV umpire: S.D. Ranade

Match referee: B. Raghunath