October 9, Indore: India Green put in a commanding display to beat India Red by a comfortable six wickets at the Holkar Cricket Stadium in Indore. Chasing a minuscule target of 186 for a win, India Green couldn’t quite make the opening partnership count as Naman Ojha’s powerfully struck drive off Vinay Kumar’s bowling found Virat Kohli. Anirudha Srikkanth was the next to go, with Kumar bagging his second wicket in the ninth over.

But the Reds’ hopes of a revival were dashed once captain Subramaniam Badrinath (67) and Rohit Sharma (48) came together at the crease. The India hopefuls put on a wonderful 87-run partnership to set up the win for the Greens. And despite Ashoke Dinda’s double blow which dismissed both the batsmen in quick succession, it wasn’t enough for a Reds revival as the right-handed duo had done enough to ensure that the Greens reached their target with 13 overs to spare.

With this win the Greens have put themselves in a good position to grab a final berth but the competition is still wide open as all three teams have a shot at reaching the final of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy.

Earlier in the day Dinesh Karthik won the toss and elected to bat first. But it didn’t quite go according to plan for Karthik’s men. Opener Manish Pandey was the first to go as Dhaval Kulkarni trapped him right in front of the stumps. Virat Kohli didn’t last too long either as Pankaj Singh induced an edge from the right-hander.

Parthiv Patel (86), on the other hand, displayed some delightful stroke-play to keep the scoreboard ticking at his end. Along with skipper Karthik (29), he looked to get the Reds to a respectable total, but some miscommunication between the two led to Karthik’s run out at a crucial juncture of the match. Sarabjit Ladda then made sure the opposition didn’t get even an inch - he decimated the Reds’ middle order with some sublime leg spin aided by a lot of blunt thinking from the batsmen. Saurabh Tiwary (1), Yusuf Pathan (3), and Mohnish Mishra (20) all perished to Ladda’s bowling.

But the Greens needed to dismiss the well-settled Patel and that crucial breakthrough came in the 34th over as the southpaw only succeeded in holing out at long-off to fetch Ladda his fourth wicket. The Greens were all over the Reds post the Ladda onslaught as J Singh and D Kulkarni dismissed the lower order in just over 40 overs leaving themselves a paltry 186 to chase.

Brief Scores – India Green 187 for 4 (Subramaniam Badrinath 67, Rohit Sharma 48, Ashoke Dinda 2-47) beat India Red

185 all out (Parthiv Patel 86, Sarabjit Ladda 4-46) by 6 wickets