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3rd Test: Australia wins Sydney Test (scorecard), South Africa won Test Series 2-1.. T20 & ODI series follows.
Current Cricket Series : South Africa vs Australia, West Indies vs New Zealand. Coming Up : India in NZ 2009.

Filed under Challengers trophy

Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan was once called 'Angry young man'. by the end of Challengers series 2007 - we met another. This time a lot shorter in length, and the name is Dinesh Kaarthik.

playing with DKAARTHIK written on his back, recently married man wanted to tell the selectors that he deserves to be in playing eleven of India. Kaarthik also showed 'International cricket isn't sweet' to young spinner Pragyan Ojha as the left arm spinner tried to stop a ball next to Kaarthik (who pushed him). Dinesh struck 'powerful' 116 off just 92 balls, and remained unbeaten as India Blue chased down good looking 270 set by India Red. The final match of this Indian domestic yearly oneday tournament. Virendra Sehwag was the winning captain, posing with the NKP Salve trophy.

Gautam Gambhir & Badrinath set the foundation for India Red, as the batted first. Captain Kaif said his team would be happy if they set around 270 and they got exactly that, thanks to less known wicket-keeper Mahesh Rawat.

But, as I said, no one stands between Angry young man & the win. Karthik won the man for India Blue with 9 overs to spare..

The final scorelines
P Kumar 1, Gambhir 82, K Goel 4,
Kaif 22, Badrinath 55, V Kohli 0,
Paresh Patel 0,M Rawat 43.
India Red : 269 all out in 49.3 ovs.
India Blue : 270 for 4 in 41 overs.
Sehwag 1, Rahane 20, Arjun Yadav 6,
Raina 50, Kaarthik 116*(91B, 14x4, 2x6),
Neeraj Patel 62 (70), extras 15.

Man of the match - Dinesh Kaarthik
Man of the series - Suresh Raina.

some final Notes
-No century was scored in this challengers trophy and the only over hundred partnership came between Gautam Gambhir and Subramaniam Badrinath in this final match.

-Talk about players of this tournament - Praveen Kumar was best bowler with 10 wickets whereas Suresh Raina scored 92, 65 & 50 in his three innings to be the highest run scorer of the series. Other high scoring batsman were Badrinath (41, 82, 55), Gautam Gambhir (0,73,82) & Dinesh Karthik (0,65,116*). Out of three wicket keepers, Dinesh Karthik scored the most runs and effected most dismissals than Parthiv Patel and Mahesh Rawat of India Blue.

-Dinesh Kaarthik has just been dropped from national team & he's has started his comeback trail already. His wife and Dad were present during all 3 instances when Kaarthik was batting or keeping. and talk about superstition - both father-wife duo wre sitting at the same chair at all three occasions. Kaarthik looked determined I must say.

Few names to look for in future
Sadly, there aren't too many genuinely fast bowlers coming up for India. Ishant Sharma looked the fastest, but even he struggled to hit speedguns over 135kmph.. but other than pace bowling - fielding, spin department & array of batsmen are coming up and asking selectors to give them a chance at top level. here they are, sorted in reverse order of how famous they are..

Subramaniam Badrinath
I've already written plenty about this responsible middle order batsman, so do read this man's profile when your schedule allows.

Praveen Kumar
This 130kmph speedster cum six-hitting/risky batsman got the node from selectors for the Pakistan series. Soon he won't be unknown to the cricket world, so I'll escape Praveen as well. Read this if you wish for more.

Suresh Raina
For almost a decade, young Indian batsman wanted to bat like Sachin Tendulkar. Now its time for Yuvraj Singh to find his fans. The left-hander, Raina I mean, has plenty of power in wrists & is very comfortable playing the fast bowling. Let the pitch be in India or Australia, if the ball comes onto the bat - Suresh Raina is some batsman to watch. Very aggressive batsman probably needs to calm him nerves & start scoring centuries so that selectors give him the comeback ticket.

Amit Mishra
This Haryana leg-spinner wants to be heard. And the publicity & the glory. I really liked his attitude & his googlies were very hard to pick. Mishra clean bowled S Badrinath & Virat Kolhi in the first game & was never played perfectly by any of the batsman in whole series. Mishra can also hold the willow if needed!

Manoj Tiwary
Half sleeves are pulled to the shoulders, nice stance and relaxed.. Manoj Tiwary looks a perfect number 4 of a test match, who can also hit mighty blows when needed. Someone who understands the importance of centuries, and Indian fans will hear him score some big runs as the Ranji Trophy 2008 season starts 4th of November.

Virat Kohli
I'll take the risk and bet some dollars on this Delhi boy playing for India someday inside 5 years. Right hander loves playing straight & posses plenty of power in hands even at this short age of 20. It was heartening to see how many young Indian batsman having good biceps & tight stomachs rather than sleek short cricketer India have produced until the days gone by.

Green vs Red vs Blue : Challengers Cup 2007

5 unknowns Indian fans should watch out for

Speed & bounce in Challengers trophy pitch

Challenger cup in India : History & now

Game 1 : India Blue ride on Suresh Raina classic

India Red strom into finals in style

India Green gone, Red vs Blue final on

Challengers cup 2007 ends with plenty of hope