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Game 1 : India Blue ride on Suresh Raina classic

Filed under Challengers trophy

Raina-Challenger-Trophy.jpg There's something about Suresh Raina that International cricket is yet to witness. And those who thought spin bowling is dead in India, will have good 2-3 surprises coming as Anil Kumble retires..

Today, during India Blue vs India Red game at Motera, Amit Mishra showed how to deceive a batsman in flight and rattle the stumps with a googly. Not one, but two good players of spin (Virat Kohli & S Badrinath) had no clue how their Innings final delivery went past their bat. The Haryana Spinner also was not out with 27 good runs towards the end India Blue batting.

246 they had made, fighting total complied around strokeful 92 by Suresh Raina and Neeraj Patel's 35 vital contribution. One stage, Praveen Kumar had reduced India Red to trouble-ful 4 for 41.. batsman looked very uncomfortable against Kumar's swing in anti-swinging conditions.

India Red Captain, Mohammad Kaif, wanted to chase had he won the toss. Having bowled out the opposition inside their 50 overs - chase was very much on. Batting at number 3 - Kaif showed good drives yet looked lacking some ability against genuine quick bowling. his 59 ball innings was a mixed bag, not enough to take India Green home. neither did the job specialist Subramaniam Badrinath. both batsman got out on fourties when they should have stayed till their eighties..

At the end, victory margin of 12 was as close as it looks. Bowlers had hard time gripping the dew-filled balls and India red should have got home, but didn't.

The Scorecard
A Rahane 0, Sehwag 9, Asnodkar 19,
Karthik 0, Raina 92 (100B, 7x4, 2x6),
Neeraj Patel 35, Joginder 35 Sharma 27,
Amit Mishra 27*, Powar 21(13). Ex = 10.
India Blue : 246 all out in 49.3 overs.
India Red : 234 for 8 in 50 overs.
Ricky 10, Gambhir 0, Kaif 42, Kohli 30,
Badrinath 41, M. Rawat 47, P Kumar 37,

Few notes
-How many times does it happen that the team batting first has been bowled out inside their 50 overs, yet the chasing team didn't win even with wickets remaining in the end!

-Where was the bounce?? It was said by the pitch curator at Sardar Patel stadium that bowlers will have good zip and carry to the wicket keeper on ths pitch we are playing, but there hardly was anything to mention. In fact, this looked like an ideal Indian one day pitch - nothing bouncy about it.

-The Dew factors is going to decide this Challengers trophy and also who wins the India vs Pakistan 5 ODI series. Winter is coming fast in India, and day-night games all around the country will see effect of dew from 7pm onwards.

-There were hardly any people watching the first match of this high-profile Indian domestic match. BCCI has managed to find a sponsor for the 4 day event, but somehow forgot about the locals in Ahmedabad.. may be they need to allow people for free - at least young Indian cricketers can know how stadium filled with fans can effect the motivation levels!!

-The next match : India Red vs India Green, which has the likes of Manoj Tiwary, Munaf Patel, Piyush Chawla along with captain Parthiv Patel (who is in some form these days).




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