Oct 29: After being dropped from the Indian team for the first two One-day games against Pakistan Tamil Nadu’s southpaw Dinesh Karthick came out with a belligerent knock of unbeaten 116 to guide India Blue to score a resounding six-wicket win over India Red clinching the Challenger Trophy title at the Sardar Patel stadium in Motera here on Sunday.
Karthick took the field when his team was in dire straits with scoreboard showing 55 for the loss of three wickets but an unbroken 168-run record partnership for the fifth wicket in Challenger between Dinesh Karthick and Niraj Patel saw India Blues romp home nine overs before after chasing the target of 269 set by India Red.
Karthick in his 91-ball knock stamped his authority and made a strong statement to the selectors. He produced the innings of the tournament and played some of the fine cricketing shots all around the park.
India Blue had a dismal start by losing skipper Virender Sehwag, Arjun Yadav and Ajinkya Rahane in quick succession. Left-hander Suresh Raina contributed with a swaggering half-century providing some much needed resistance and steadied the innings Blues and later local lad Niraj Patel joined the party producing an impressive 62 off 70 balls.
Earlier in the day inspite of initial hiccups India Red managed to post a competitve total of 269, thanks to some fine batting performance by Gautam Gambhir (83) at the start and latern a fine half-century by inform S Badrinath (55). Gambhir hammered seven fours in his stay at the wicket, which was crucial to India Red’s survival.
Amit Mishra, who is in good form with the ball recently, foxed Gambhir with a quicker one and caught and bowled Virat Kohli off the very next ball. Mahesh Rawat's fine effort of unbeaten 43 towards the end pushed the Reds past 250 but Mishra's spell in the middle made the difference eventually. Mishra ended up with the figures of 3 for 45 in his quota of overs.
Red’s Skipper Mohd. Kaif had a short stint in the middle scoring just 22 runs in 19 balls. Rahane caught him off Ranadeb Bose delivery.
Joginder Sharma gave India Blue and the final a terrific start by rattling the stumps of Uttar Pradesh’s Praveen Kumar, the newly recruit in the Indian team. Joginder Sharma enjoyed the moment, going down on one knee and pumping his fist to celebrate the wicket
Soon after he trapped Karan Goel in front of the wicket. But India Red recovered to make 269 in 49.3 overs.
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