India Red thump Greens by 88 runs

India Red kept its chances alive in the Challenger series as they beat India Greens comprehensively by 88 runs at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday. After losing to India Blues by 12 runs on Thursday, the Reds fought back on Friday to register a comprehensive win. Chasing 304 to win, the Greens were hardly in the hunt, as they could not recover from early setbacks.

Manoj Tiwary played a lone hand for India Green as they were bowled out for 215 runs in 47 overs. Tiwary was the only batsman for the Greens who looked at ease in the middle as the rest of the batting lineup struggled to find their feet chasing the stiff target. The Bengal batsman made 65 runs off 71 balls, hitting eight free-flowing boundaries.

Pravin Kumar, who grabbed five wickets in his nine overs giving away 45 runs did the early damage for the Reds by going through the gates of Yusuf Pathan to clean up the Vadodara all-rounder’s middle stump in the first over of the innings and then scalping Cheteshwar Pujara soon. Captain Parthiv Patel, coming to bat at number three struggled on his home ground as the wicket-keeper-batsman failed to get going in his 35-ball 19 before Gujarat pacer Siddharth Trivedi brought an end to his stay.

With the Greens stuttering to the pacers, young turks Manoj Tiwary and Rohit Sharma strung a partnership of sorts, putting together 31 runs for the fourth wicket. But India’s Twenty20 world championship’s hero Sharma soon mistimed a Trivedi-delivery, which led to his undoing.

After Orissa batsman Niranjan Behera was dismissed, India Greens had lost half their side with just 101 runs on the board. Tiwary was the sixth batsman to fall and with him went the Green’s hope for a miracle.

The lower order batsmen, however put on some resistance for India Greens as Mumbai all-rounder Abhishek Nayar (29) and leg spinner Piyush Chawla (26) put up a brave front with a fighting partnership of 41 runs but it was a little late in the day as the India Red bowlers tightened their stranglehold over the game and soon getting rid of the tail in clinical fashion.

Earlier, half centuries from Gautam Gambhir and S Badrinath propelled India Red to post a mammoth 303. Cameos from Karan Goel and Virat Kohli also helped India Red’s cause to set the greens the daunting task batting under the lights.

S. Badrinath made his knocks on the national side’s doors louder as the Tamil Nadu batsman smashed an unbeaten 82 in only 79 balls. Badrinath maintained the momentum of the Red’s innings after Gambhir’s dismissal and later on accelerated in fine style hitting seven fours and a six.

After choosing to bat first all-rounder Pravin Kumar gave India Red a rollicking start but Green’s opening bowler Pankaj Singh pegged the Reds onto the backfoot as the Rajasthan pacer removed Kumar and Mohammad Kaif early on. The India Red skipper, Kaif looked out of touch and played a scratchy innings of 8 runs taking up as many as 21 deliveries.

But Punjab batsman Karan Goel along with Gautam Gambhir held the fort for the Reds as the duo put together 69 runs for the third wicket. Fresh from his match-winning knock in the one-off Twenty20 match against Australia, Gambhir led India Red’s charge scoring 73 runs off 74 deliveries. The Delhi opener, who was run out without bothering the scorers against India Blue on Thursday, looked in impeccable touch, playing shots to all corners of the ground with seven hits to the fence.

The Gambhir-Goel partnership looked threatening for the Greens but the pendulum swung after the halfway stage as skipper Parthiv Patel’s ploy of applying spin from both ends worked. Goel, was scalped by part-time bowler Rohit Sharma for a well made 32 and leg spinner Piyush Chawla saw the back of Gambhir seven balls later.

With India Red in a spot of bother again, Badrinath and Kohli led the recovery adding 85 runs before Kohli perished for 40 in the 43rd over.

Paresh Patel and Mahesh Rawat, coming to bat at the death played quick-fire knocks to take Reds beyond the 300-run mark.