|
Viru strikes form
to take his side into the finals |
Link to
Scorecard
 Captain
Virender Sehwag's timely 75 has not only got him
selected in the Indian team but has also carried
his India Blue side in the Final. India Blue on
the base of a top order run riot hit the highest
total of the tournament - 330 for 8 which was
too good for the Parthiv Patel led India Green
team.
It wasn't just Virender Sehwag (75 from 57
with 14 fours and a six) who was amongst the
runs. Arjun Yadav, Suresh Raina and Dinesh
Karthik also got to half centuries to complete a
superlative batting show which was aided by some
lousy bowling efforts. Sehwag started off
cautiously but once he got set on a slow wicket,
there was hardly any looking back until he got
deceived by a beautiful arm ball from Iqbal
Abdulla that cleaned him up. Arjun Yadav, son of
former Indian Off Spinner Shivlal Yadav came in
at no.3 and batted superbly to prove many of his
critics wrong. Arjun's lofted shots were a treat
to watch as he showed lot of ease and smoothness
in those shots, often lifting them with lot of
wrist work. He made 65 in 75 with 6 fours and 2
sixes before a tame dismissal. Suresh Raina made
a rapid 64 from 51 with 4 fours and 2 sixes
while Dinesh Karthik, who wasn't aware of being
dropped from the Indian team got 65 from 48 with
7 fours and a six.
Once again, Munaf Patel and Piyush Chawla
struggled to stamp their class although it was a
much better show this time round. Parthiv Patel
was forced to use eight bowlers! It was a tall
task for the Greens but the Skipper Parthiv
Patel got a wonderful partnership going with the
classy Rohit Sharma. It was a good bowling spell
from Joginder Sharma at the start though, mixing
up his swing bowling with some surprise
bouncers. Joginder broke the third wicket
partnership by running out Parthiv (53 from 50
with 8 fours). Rohit Sharma (48 from 47 with 6
fours and a six) got out in the same 20th over
after getting stumped down the legside off
Ramesh Powar. After this partnership, no one
else could put up any sort of fight as the
Greens collapsed in the 39th over, getting all
out for 239. Spinners Ramesh Powar and Amit
Mishra took three wickets each. The Man of the
Match was Virender Sehwag.
Top of the Page |
Related Links