Date:28/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/28/stories/2007102857381900.htm

Sport

Blistering knock by Sehwag

G. Viswanath

Arjun Yadav struck authentic strokes scoring 65
Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik scored half-centuries

Ahmedabad: India Blue collared the bowling to post an imposing 330 against India Green in the last league match of the UltraTech Challenger series for the N.K.P. Salve Trophy here on Saturday. Virender Sehwag clipped Munaf Patel’s first delivery around his pads wide of the fine leg boundary. He went on to hit 13 more boundaries and a six to make a 57-ball 75. Thereafter his colleagues went on a leather hunt.

On a featherbed of a surface and against a set of bowlers among whom Munaf and Piyush Chawla were the only noteworthy names, the India Blue batsmen thrashed the ball to all parts of the field.

The pick was Hyderabad’s Arjun Yadav who in the course of his 75-ball 65 struck (6x4s, 2x6s) authentic strokes.

The India Blue middle order in Suresh Raina (64, 66b, 4x4s, 1x6) and Dinesh Karthik (65, 72b, 7x4s, 1x6) capitalised on Sehwag’s blazing start. Sehwag made the inner ring look irrelevant, found the gaps and also hit over the top. He raced to his half century off a mere 41 balls.

The scores: India Blue: V. Sehwag b Abdulla 75, S. Asnodkar c Parthiv b Pankaj Singh 8, A. Yadav c Pujara b Tiwary 65, S. Raina c Tiwary b Chawla 64, D. Karthik b Munaf 65, Neeraj Patel c Tiwary b Chawla 22, R. Powar c Munaf b Abdulla 0, J. Sharma (run out) 2, A. Mishra (not out) 9, S. Bandekar (not out) 12; Extras: (lb-5, w-3) 8; Total: (for eight wkts. in 50 overs) 330.

Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-112, 3-197, 4-229, 5-292, 6-293, 7-307, 8-313.

India Green Bowling: Munaf 10-1-52-1, Pankaj 9-0-54-1, Nayar 3-0-35-0, Chawla 10-0-60-2, Abdulla 9-0-56-2, Pathan 4-0-26-0, Tiwary 3-0-25-1, Rohit Sharma 2-0-17-0.