October 11, Indore: India Blue and India Green squared off for the second time in successive days in the final of the 2010/11 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy. In the previous match played yesterday India Green were handed a 111-run defeat by the men in Blue and if the Greens were to make a match of the final, a much improved performance was required on the day.

The Blues started well after winning the toss and opting to bat first. Shikhar Dhawan and Tanmay Srivastava put on 67 for the opening wicket and even though a couple of wickets fell in quick succession, Srivastava’s century, coming at a run-a-ball, set things up for India Blue. Manoj Tiwary had given the Blues’ innings the required flourish at the end yesterday and today he did even better. He hit 84 from just 73 deliveries and though the Blues were not able to get past the 300-run mark, a total of 287 runs was always going to be daunting for India Green.

Sarabjit Ladda (1-41) and R Ashwin (2-45) bowled particularly well for India Green, while Abhimanyu Mithun paid far too big a price for his three-wicket tally, having conceded 70 runs in 9 overs.

India Green began on a positive note as Anirudha Srikkanth and Naman Ojha took the run-rate to above six an over. But with the score at 45 in the eighth over, India Green lost three wickets in the space of 11 deliveries. From that point on, India Green were always fighting a losing battle as S Badrinath was run out by Yuvraj Singh and Robin Uthappa perished to a Piyush Chawla delivery stumped by wicketkeeper Shreevats Goswami.

The end came soon as India Green folded up for 147. RP Singh was the pick of the India Blue bowlers taking three wickets for just 20 runs in 6.4 overs. Piyush Chawla took an equal number of wickets while conceding 45 runs.

Yuvraj Singh didn’t have too many runs to show against his name for the tournament, but as captain of India Blue was the proud recipient of the 2010/11 NKP Salve Challenger Trophy on the night.

Brief Scores – India Blue 287 for 7 (Tanmay Srivastava 103, Manoj Tiwary84, Abhimanyu Mithun 3-70)beat India Green 147 (Robin Uthappa 30, RP Singh 3-20, Piyush Chawla 3-45) by 140 runs.