Comprehensive win takes India Red into finals

India Red booked a slot in the final of the Challenger Trophy with a commanding eight wicket victory over India Green in a relatively one sided affair. The Harbhajan Singh led Green put up a paltry 171 run target which was further reduced to 152 due to rain interruption and India Red romped home comfortably with 13 overs to spare.

Chasing a modest 171, India Red left handed openers, Gautam Gambhir and Abhinav Mukund batted with authority from the beginning. Moreover, the Red skipper Gambhir got a reprieve, dropped by Mohammad Kaif in the covers when he had made only 14. Since, India Green were dismissed too early, the Red had to bat eight overs before the dinner during which they powered their way to 45 with the two openers still together.

A spell of rain during the break halted play for some time due to which the target for India Red was revised to 152 from 42 overs. But, the extended break made no difference to the two not out batsmen. While Gambhir looked confident at the crease even using his crease against his opponent number Harbhajan Singh for a six, Mukund was as assured as ever, calmly scoring runs through elegant strokes.

Finally, Gambhir was caught off Abhimanyu Mithun after a brisk knock of 57 that was punctuated by six boundaries and a six. The opening partnership like their opponents was exactly worth hundred but unlike India Green, the innings did not loose momentum after the first wicket. Mukund continued his rich vein of run scoring bringing up yet another fifty with a six. He was dismissed for 61 with just 15 more needed. The formalities were completed without any alarms as India Red clinched a spot in the finals with their second consecutive victory in as many days.

Earlier, India Green after being put in on a decent batting surface had a very good start to the innings with the two openers sharing a 100 run stand before their batting simply imploded to be all-out in 37.5 overs for 170. The India Red bowlers led by Yusuf Pathan who picked up four wickets benefited from some mindless short selection that saw wickets fall in a heap.

Robin Uthappa and S Anirudha started off slowly before the duo got their eye in. Once they pace and bounce was gauged, they unleashed some quality strokes to get their side off to a racing start. After ten overs, they were going nicely at 69 for no loss. Uthappa in particular batted aggressively to bring up his fifty off 43 balls with a hit down the ground but fell to a similar stroke to be dismissed for 56 when the team score 100 after 15.3 overs.

From this seemingly good position, the India Green batsmen just threw it away. T Suman was stumped for a duck off Pathan and the well-settled Anirudha fell after a steady 37. Mohnish Mishra’s run-out shortly after wards meant that India Green had lost four wickets for 14 in 6.9 overs. Though, Mohammad Kaif and Muralidharen Gautam tried to do the rescue act with a 36 run partnership, the India Red bowlers ran through the lower order limiting India Green to 170. The last six wickets could add only 21.

In addition to Pathan’s four wickets, Jalaj Saxena and TP Sudhindra chipped in with a couple of scalps each.