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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 Cup 2008

Cuttack don't always host top level cricket matches, and hence, it was wonderful to see Barabati stadium half full as Blue team met Red team yesterday.. itsonlycricket.com also had two emails asking for information on how to buy tickets for this Challengers trophy 2008.

Then, I found out - it was free entry.

Crowd again gathered in thousands to watch today's India Red vs India Green match and got their money time worth as superb century from Rohit Sharma shocked Mohammad Kaif lead India Green team who had put up competitive 241 on board (batting first) on a low-bounce Cuttack Pitch. Missed out through a lazy flick in Match 1 of this challenger's series 2008 - Rohit Sharma played with tremendous maturity & steered his team home.

Murali Vijay is another name to watch out for in future - Right handed opening batsman has exceptional leg side play and his off-side batting is sluggish but strong. Murali Vijay is also a smart batsman who takes his time, plays 20-25 deliveries, before he unleashes his real class. Tamil Nadu (state team) batsman hits on the up, plays controlled hook/pull shots & flicks nicely off his legs.

Murali Vijay & Rohit Sharma partnership laid the foundation, and Abhishek Nayar finished up well to overhaul the total built around Opening partners Naman Ojha (wicket-keeper) plus Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina for India Green.

India Green : 260/9 in 50 overs
Naman Ojha 96 (130B, 10x4, 6x1), Shikhar Dhawan 45,
Suresh Raina 58 (65B, 2x4, 2x6), Yusuf Pathan 0,
Mohammad Kaif 15, Laxmi Ratan Shukla 3,
Cheteshwar Pujara (not out) 18, RP Singh 4,
Mahendra Gony 0, Pankaj Singh 0, Pragyan Ojha 1*,
Praveen Kumar 10-0-51-2 & Piyush Chawla 10-0-5-3.

India Red : 263/5 in 48.5 overs
Faiz Fazal 15, Murali Vijay 45 (59B, 5x4, 1x6),
Rohit Sharma 117 not out (120balls, 13x4, 2x6),
Subramanium Badrinath 27, Manoj Tiwary 8,
Abhishek Nayar 34 (31balls), Piyush Chawla 1*
Mahendra Gony 9-1-52-2 & Yusuf Pathan 10-0-40-1.

India Red won by 5 wickets but without bonus point.

Interestingly, the dress worn by players in this 2008 Challengers series hardly resembled their names. India Green were wearing pale yellow with tinge of green whereas India Red had just a bit of Red under their shoulders with whole dress in Blue colour. Only India Blue team had a blue dress! Sadly, no media person is covering this series and thus no picture to show the fact..

Indian domestic tournament : NKP Salve Challengers Cup 2008

Profiles of players in Challenger series 2008 squad.

Match 1 : Easy win for India Blue over India Red

Match 2 : India Red beat India Green to keep hopes alive

Match 4 : India Blue wins Challengers Cup 2008.