India Blue beat Delhi by 18 runs in the opening game of the NKP Salve Trophy at the Holkar cricket stadium. Abhishek Nayar helped set up the game with 91, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ankit Rajpoot claimed three wickets each to bowl the team to victory.

After opting to bat first, Delhi claimed the top-order batsmen to leave the opposition struggling on 99 for four. Rajat Bhatia claimed Naman Ojha, Manoj Pandey and Sibsankar Roy to leave India Blue on 66 for three after a 56-run opening stand. And 33 runs later, Varun Sood sent back Akshath Reddy for 53.

However, Nayar came to India Blue’s rescue. The middle-order batsman anchored the innings with a well-compiled 91 to revive the team’s innings. And with useful contributions from Piyush Chawla (40*) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (29*) they set Delhi a competitive target.

Defending 270 runs, Bhuvneshwar Kumar struck early to send Delhi on the back foot. The pacer claimed Mohit Sharma lbw in the first over, while Virat Kohli edged him to Ojha behind the wickets. A few overs later, Unmukt Chand was run-out for 13, while 22 runs later Iresh Saxena caught Virender Sehwag off his own bowling to give India Blue an important breakthrough. With Sehwag back in the dressing room after a quickfire half-century and Milind Kumar run-out a bit later, Delhi were 122 for five. Although Bhatia fought to keep the team in reckoning his 65-run knock was in vain as Delhi lost wickets at regular intervals.

Rajpoot wrecked the lower-order, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar accounted for one more wicket; Delhi were 224 for nine at that point. Vinay Kumar then wrapped up the Delhi innings with the wicket of Parvinder Awana in 47.5 overs, while Ashish Nehra was stranded on 37 as Delhi were bowled out for 252.

Brief scores: India Blue270/6 in 50 overs (A Nayar 91, A Reddy 53, P Chawla 40*, R Bhatia 3/46) beat Delhi252 all-out in 47.5 overs (R Bhatia 65, V Sehwag 59, A Rajpoot 3/44, B Kumar 3/58) by 18 runs