It seems being dropped from the squad for the Pakistan series has not affected wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik at all.
AHMEDABAD: It seems being dropped from the squad for the Pakistan series has not affected wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik at all.
On Sunday, at the floodlit Sardar Patel Stadium in Motera, the Tamil Nadu lad gave a strong notice to the selectors that he can still come back to the side purely on merit.
The stylish batsman slammed a classy unbeaten 115 to guide India Blue to a comfortable six-wicket win over India Red and lift the Ultratech NKP Salve Challenger Trophy.
Southpaw Neeraj Patel (62 not out) ably supported Karthik, and Suresh Raina hit his third successive fifty in the tournament as Blues overhauled the target of 270 with nine overs to spare.
Karthik played a mature innings, hitting the bad deliveries and leaving the good ones.
Coming in when three wickets were down for 55, Karthik along with Raina went behind the bowlers, slamming them to all parts of the ground.
Raina entertained the crowd with his powerful hitting and reached his half-century off just 44 balls before he was bowled by Siddharth Trivedi.
His 50 was studded with nine hits to the fence.
But Karthik batted without any pressure and kept rotating the strike regularly.
He and Neeraj Patel went on to build a huge unbeaten 168-run partnership for the fifth wicket.
The Red bowlers struggled to get a breakthrough as neither gave any chance to their opponents.
Karthik, whose 116 came off 92 balls, finished the game in style, dancing down the track and hitting Karan Goel for a boundary.
Earlier, India Red opener Gautam Gambhir, who cracked a powerful half-century in the one-off Twenty20 game against the Aussies in Mumbai, continued his fine form in the Challenger Trophy and slammed a solid 82 — his second consecutive half-century in the tourney.
Some intelligent batting from Subramaniam Badrinath (55) helped India India Blue reach 269 all out in 49.3 overs, after India Red skipper Mohd Kaif chose to bat on what looked a perfect batting strip.
Gambhir, who has made it to the 15-member squad for the forthcoming home series against Pakistan, looked confident from the word go.
Blue pace bowler Ranadeb Bose had a taste of Gambhir’s fire in the very first over as the former was tonged for a huge six over long on.
The Delhi batsman lost his partner Praveen Kumar, who was picked in the senior team for his recent consistent showings, and then one-drop Karan Goel in no time — both wickets claimed by medium pacer Joginder Sharma — but hardly looked unnerved.
Skipper Kaif, who came in next, looked in good touch with two glorious cover drives.
But he could not continue the good work and was dismissed by Bose after a 19-ball 22.
Undeterred by the fall of wickets at the other end, Gambhir continued with his fireworks. Later on, he and Badrinath consolidated the innings.
The duo put on 111 runs for the fourth wicket before Gambhir danced down the track to hit leg-spinner Amit Sharma but managed only to edge the ball to short third man fielder Joginder Sharma.
The left-hander’s innings was studded with seven boundaries and a six. Badrinath did not hit a single boundary in his half-century.
Amit Mishra was the most successful bowler for India Blue with three for 45.
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