It was a cruel end to an event that had promised, and to a great extent, delivered, much excitement since its first to the final ball.
CHENNAI: A day after Sourav Ganguly’s ouster had robbed the sheen of the Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy, rain, which had mercifully stayed away since since the tournament began on Sunday, washed out the final. India Blue, thus, had to share the winners’ trophy with India Red.
It was a cruel end to an event that had promised, and to a great extent, delivered, much excitement since its first to the final ball.
On Wednesday, Virender Sehwag was batting like a dream, making up for the early exit of Sachin Tendulkar. The dasher from Najafgarh was unbeaten on 90, scored off just 81 balls (14 fours and 1 six). Standing with him at the crease was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, on 6. India Blue’s score was 210-4 in 31.2 overs, and threatened to balloon upto massive proportions, but for the notoriously bad ‘cricket weather’ of Chennai. It did stop raining for some time, and the umpires announced they planned an inspection at 6.30pm. Just as one pinned the hopes on weather to relent, and the excellent drainage conditions at the MA Chidambaram Stadium to play their part, it started pelting down again. And this time, with more force. This year’s tournament would have been a complete success, from the cricketing point of view, but for the rained off final.
Earlier, clichéd as it may sound, the law of averages finally caught up with Tendulkar, as he was brilliantly caught by Robin Uthappa in the covers off an away delivery from Zaheer Khan after India Blue won the toss and elected to bat. The team strategy probably is, if Sachin doesn’t do it, then Viru must. Boundaries flowed from the Jat bat’s blade with monotonous regularity, and the run-rate was always healthy. Sehwag added 49 runs in 7.3 overs with ‘regular No. 3’ Irfan Pathan, and then, 101 in 100 balls with skipper Rahul Dravid who had a reprieve.
Yuvraj Singh scored 27 off just 21 balls before being trapped by Murali Kartik, who had earlier dropped a simple chance at first slip that Pathan had offered. This year’s Challenger Series, thus, winded up on a damp note. Both for the Chennai spectators and for Ganguly.
India Blue:
V Sehwag not out 90
S Tendulkar c Robin Uthappa b Khan 0
I Pathan c sub (R Satish) b Khan 22
R Dravid run Out (R Uthappa) 43
Yuvraj Singh LBW Karthik 27
M S Dhoni not out 6
Extras: (lb-1, nb-2, w-19) 22
Total: (for four wickets in 31.2 overs) 210
Fall of wickets: 1/6, 2/55, 3/156, 4/194
Bowling: Zaheer 6-1-32-2, Sreesanth 8-0-51-0, VRV Singh 7-0-51-0, Powar 3-0-21-0, Karthik 5.2-0-39-1, TP Singh 2-0-15-0
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