Nagpur, Oct 10: The NKP Salve Challenger trophy for 2011 got underway as India Red beat India Blue in the opening match of the four day tournament here in Jamtha, Nagpur. After being set a target of 275 to win, India red posted a five-wicket win owing to a sparkling century from Abhinav Mukund (127 off 133 balls).

It was India Blue who made first use of the wicket at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium. Half centuries from S Badrinath (56), Mandeep Singh (50) along with useful contributions from Paul Valthaty (36) and Manish Pandey (45) helped the Blues post a competitive total of 274. Bhargav Bhatt, Piyush Chawla and Pankaj Singh took two wickets each for the Reds with Chawla remaining the best bowler; the legspinner conceding just 42 runs from his 10 overs.

India Red didn’t have the best of starts as they lost both openers Shikhar Dhawan (3) and Gautam Gambhir (11) early in the run chase. Big-hitting batsman Yusuf Pathan’s early exit with the Reds’ score only at 45 further made their task even more difficult.

Mukund, however, stepped up for the Reds in this situation and strung together two partnerships that took his side to victory. The left-handed Tamil Nadu batsman added 71 for the fourth wicket with Ashok Menaria (19) followed by a 147-run partnership with Wriddhiman Saha for the fifth. The latter partnership took the game away from India Blue as the Reds won with 15 deliveries left to be bowled in the game. Mukund fell just a little before the winning runs were hit, caught by wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik off Pradeep Sangwan’s bowling. Saha remained unbeaten on 65.

The Reds now take on India Green in the next match of the tournament tomorrow.

Brief Scores – India Red 275 for 5 in 47.3 overs (Abhinav Mukund 127, Wriddhiman Saha 65*, Pradeep Sangwan 3-61) beat India Blue 274 for 8 in 50.0 overs (S Badrinath 56, Mandeep Singh 50, Piyush Chawla 2/42) by 5 wickets

Man-of-the-match:Abhinav Mukund for his match winning knock of 127 runs