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India Green gone, Red vs Blue final on

Filed under Challengers trophy

Sehwag-Selected.jpg India green squad was not particularly the weakest, with Rohit Sharma, Parthiv Patel, Manoj Tiwary, Piyush Chawla & Munaf Patel.. but they failed to gel as a team & displayed the least impressive cricket. None of their batsman got past 65 in any of the matches, neither their bowlers looked like snatching a wicket.

Having lost the game against India Red, Green team had to win this group match against Blue team with a big margin. Parthiv Patel lost the toss, but was happy to chase any given target inside 40 overs to win with a bonus point.

India Blue reached 330 in their 50 overs. leaving Greens an asking rate of 8.275 for a ticket to Challenger series finals.

Virendra Sehwag was batting as Indian selectors were picking Indian team for Pakistan series. Luckily, Sehwag's 78 (from 57 balls & 14x4s) came at precise moment & he was recalled on national duty as well. Sehwag, I must mention, was very careful at the start of the innings and negotiated good balls initially. watching hin play forward defense was bit of new picture for me!!

Suresh Raina and then Dinesh Karthik (whose wife was at the stadium) continued the aggression. Manoj Tiwary came into bowl, Rohit Sharma bowled, Yousuf Pathan bowled. But no green bowler could stop the run flow.

The scorelines
Sehwag 75, Asnodkar 8, Arjun Yadav 65,
Raina 64(51), Karthik 65(48), Patel 22,
India Blue : 330 for 8 in 50 overs.
India Green : 239 allout in 38.2 overs.
Pathan 6, Anirudha 13, P Patel 53,
Rohit sharma 48, Tiwary 16, Nayar 22,
Chawla 18, Abdulla 14, extras 24.

Some notes
-Challenger's trophy is a chance for lesser known cricketers in India to make a name for themselves.. and get some photos taken. At one moment, a camera was focusing on Suresh Raina in the dressing room and I noticed Amit Mishra (the leggy) pull his chair forward to get some screen time during the coverage!

-The record for fastest 50 in all Challengers trophy is off 34 balls - by Sachin Tendulkar. but guess what, the second best effort (50 off 38 balls) by Rahul Dravid was broken twice. First, Suresh Raina got past his 50 off 38 balls, then Dinesh Karthik reached his fifty in just 37.




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