Related Links : Challenger Trophy 2007/08 : Scorecard
Dinesh Karthik showed all his anger and frustration of being dropped from the Indian team on a hapless India Red bowling during the Final of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy. A sensational innings of 116 not out in just 91 balls made short work of the inroads done by India Red. The chase of 270 eventually became very easy with Sehwag’s team getting the runs in just 41 overs, winning the match by six wickets.
In the afternoon, India Red batted first after winning the toss only to find themselves in deep trouble at 47 for 3. This was when Gautam Gambhir and S Badrinath built up a crucial hundred-run partnership that could make the match worth watching. Gambhir was looking simply scintillating with his footwork against the spinner but his over aggressiveness saw him lose his wicket in the 29th over. Gambhir made 82 from 77 with 7 fours and a six. After Gambhir’s wicket, there was a mini collapse and the Reds suddenly saw themselves in a mess which could have got them all out below 220. Badrinath (55 from 88) fell in the 37th over to make it a shaky 191 for 7. Fortunately enough, India Red found a fighting knock from wicket keeper Mahesh Rawat who remained unbeaten with an important 43 (from 59 balls with 2 fours and a six). He found able support from Shrikant Munde (18) and Pragyan Ojha (20 from 14 with 2 fours and a six) that raised the total to an impressive 269 all out in 49.3 overs.
Haryana’s leg spinner Amit Mishra, who did play a few ODIs for India continued to show his talent. Today he picked up three wickets with his turn and variations that could well give him another break at the highest level. Joginder Sharma had done well too with a couple of wickets, one of them cleaning up the stumps after staying low and the other through an lbw.
In their chase, India Blue lost their Captain Virender Sehwag in the 2nd over itself. Sehwag was done in by the lack of pace in the track as he played little too early in his flick off Munde. Then there were a couple of run outs courtesy of some sharp fielding from the Reds that got the Blues to 55 for 3 in the 9th. The fielding was good but also equally bad with Arjun Yadav getting dropped on two occasions behind the stumps in an over from Munde but the Hyderabadi soon got run out thanks to a brilliant stop from Paresh Patel at mid wicket. There was still Suresh Raina in the middle for the batting side, who has been in superb form. Along with him was Dinesh Karthik playing with vengeance and also playing infront of his father and wife. Both batsmen played their shots with ease against a not so quality attack. However, Suresh Raina couldn’t go beyond 50 (from 45 balls with 9 fours) as he played onto his stumps trying to pull medium pacer Trivedi.
The score was 102 for 4 when a short man called Niraj Patel, Gujarat’s middle order batsman and also member of the U19 World Cup winning team in the past joined another short man in Dinesh Karthik. While Niraj like always kept it really calm, Dinesh Karthik exploded with his sweeps, pulls and cuts which took the game away from the bowling side. Dinesh Karthik just raced away to a hundred and then finished the match off in style with a boundary. Karthik’s innings came with 14 fours and 2 sixes. Niraj Patel was very responsible in his innings of an unbeaten 62 from 70 with 3 fours and a six. For Dinesh Karthik, the Man of the Series, it was just the first ever hundred that he has struck in any first class limited overs game! He sure must be a lucky man to have been playing like a pure batsman all these days in the Indian team! The Player of the Series has gone to Suresh Raina.