The Hindu : Sport : Sehwag stars in India Blue’s win

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Sunday, Oct 28, 2007
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Sport

Sehwag stars in India Blue’s win

G. Viswanath

Arjun Yadav, Raina and Karthik also come up with good knocks
Romesh Powar picks up three wickets

Ahmedabad: Inevitable as it was at the supper break, India Blue imposed itself upon a team lacking identity and aimless in its approach.

Virender Sehwag’s determined outfit dominated play in both the sessions and beat India Green by 91 runs to earn a meeting with India Red for the UltraTech Challenger Series title on Sunday.

Sehwag did not have to really bring his captaincy acumen to the fore. After Parthiv Patel scored a half century to bring joy to the locals, crucial wickets fell in a heap.

Joginder Sharma’s excellent throw first removed Patel from the scene and thereafter Dinesh Karthik moved in a flash to stump an off-balance Rohit Sharma.

After which there was very little work for the scoreboard operator.

Electing to bat, India Blue collared the bowling to post an intimidating 330. Sehwag diverted Munaf Patel’s poor first delivery around his pads wide of fine-leg and thereafter scored freely to make a 57-ball 75 (14x4, 1x6).

Sehwag made the inner ring look irrelevant, finding the gaps and also hitting over the top to race to his half century off a mere 41 balls.

His colleagues joined in on a flat wicket against a weak attack — Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla being the only noteworthy names. Hyderabad’s Arjun Yadav shone in the company of Sehwag, striking the ball cleanly to score a 75-ball 65 (6x4, 2x6).

The middle order also cashed in with Suresh Raina (64, 51b, 4x4, 2x6) and Karthik (65, 48b, 7x4, 1x6) scoring half centuries.

The scores:

India Blue: V. Sehwag b Abdulla 75, S. Asnodkar c P. Patel b Pankaj Singh 8, A. Yadav c Pujara b Tiwary 65, S. Raina c Tiwary b Chawla 64, D. Karthik b M. Patel 65, N. Patel c Tiwary b Chawla 22, R. Powar c M. Patel b Ibadulla 0, J. Sharma (run out) 2, A. Mishra (not out) 9, S. Bandekar (not out) 12, Extras (lb-5, w-3): 8, Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs): 330

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-112, 3-197, 4-229, 5-292, 6-293, 7-307, 8-313

India Green bowling: M. Patel 10-1-52-1, Pankaj Singh 9-0-54-1, Nayar 3-0-35-0, Chawla 10-0-60-2, Abdulla 9-0-56-2, Pathan 4-0-26-0, Tiwary 3-0-25-1, Rohit Sharma 2-0-17-0.

India Green: Y. Pathan c Asnodkar b Joginder Sharma 6, A. Srikkanth b Joginder Sharma 13, P. Patel (run out) 53, R. Sharma st. Karthik b Powar 48, M. Tiwary b Powar 16, A. Nayar c Karthick b Mishra 22, C. Pujara c Rahane (sub) b Powar 4, P. Chawla lbw b Mishra 18, I. Abdulla (not out) 14, Pankaj Singh c N. Patel b Mishra 11, Munaf Patel c N. Patel b Raina 10, Extras (b-2, nb-7, w-15): 24, Total (in 38.2 overs) 239.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-46, 3-127, 4-131, 5-174, 6-178,7-185, 8-204, 9-224.

India Blue bowling: Joginder Sharma 5-0-29-2, Yomahesh 6-0-48-0, Bandekar 4.3-0-44-0, Powar 10-0-45-3, Mishra 10-0-50-3, Sehwag 2.3-0-21-0, Raina 0.2-0-0-1.

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