Final: Red vs Blue

The colours were final(ly) washed away by the Chennai rains. After a non-stop riot of Red, Blue & Greens at the Chepauk, the rain-gods finally intervened and the final of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy 2006 had to be called off. Sehwag was left stranded at 90, and the Blues were robbed of a very likely victory. When the umpires halted the game, the score-card read 210 for 4, with the Blues cruising at almost seven an over. The entire Red attack was in tatters, with Zaheer Khan the only one averaging below 6. Venugopal Rao should consider himself a doubly lucky man, firstly for being made the captain and secondly for being able to share the trophy with Dravid.

With the curtains coming down on Challenger 2006, it also looks like the end of the road for Saurav. After his twin failures here, Ganguly has failed to find a place in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy. A come-back from here will need a miracle, and a sustained one at that..

Match 3: Red vs Green

Almost 600 runs were scored in the final league encounter of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy 2006, but only 3 runs came from the blade of the batsman who probably mattered most. A 268 runs defeat in their previous encounter meant that Kaif's Greens (don't read too much into it!) had little or no chance of making it to the finals even if they had won the match today. It was Ganguly who was important. With a good knock here, he could have virtually knocked on the selector's doors, but it was not to be. With these twin failures, his chances of boarding Air Caribbean have further diminished. Hopefully he should be there in the Rest of India squad for the Irani Trophy!!

Rao won the toss for the Reds, and Uthappa and Gambhir provided a most rollicking start to the day's cricket. Gambhir's was the first wicket to fall, in the 31st over, but by then the scoreboard read a robust 177. But the best was yet to come. Wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthick made the most of the solid foundation - he paced his innings beautifully, starting with single and twos, he soon changed gears and delighted the crowd with 8 boundaries and 2 lovely sixes. His 85 off 68 balls helped the Reds cross 300, and with it whatever little hope the Greens had of making it to the finals had been put to complete rest. But there was the small matter of the match which was still on - but with Sreesanth bowling a tight length and quickly claiming the openers, Jaffer and Saurav, the result had been sealed. Parthiv and Chawla's half-centuries were too little, the second one also a bit late.

Match score-card:
India Red:
R Uthappa C Kaif B Balaji 92
G Gambhir C Raina B Chawla 74
Dinesh Karthick C Patel B Balaji 85
Rohit Sharma C Minhas B Praveen Kumar 26
T P Singh not out 3
Ramesh Pawar not out 9
Extras: (Lb-6, Nb-3, W-19) 28
Total (for four wkts in 50 overs) 317

Fall of wkts: 1/177, 2/254, 3/303, 4/306

Bowling: Ashish Nehra 10-0-64-0, Praveen Kumar 10-0-65-1, L Balaji 10-0-68-2, Sourav Ganguly 9-0-43-0, Piyush Chawla 10-0-67-1, Hemang Badani 1-0-4-0.

India Green:
Wasim Jaffer c Dinesh Kaarthick b Sreesanth 23
Sourav Ganguly b Sreesanth 3
Parthiv Patel c Rohit Sharma b Ramesh Powar 69
Praveen Kumar c Murali Kartik b V R V Singh 9
Mohd Kaif b Ramesh Powar 34
Suresh Raina c Rohit Sharma b Murali Kartik 1
Hemang Badani c Rohit Sharma b Ramesh Powar 18
Mithun Manhas c Murali Kartik b V R V Singh 34
Piyush Chawla not out 55
L Balaji c (sub) b V R V Singh 9
Ashish Nehra b V R V Singh 0
Extras: (lb-1, w-12, nb-10) 23
Total: 278 all out in 48.4 overs.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-53, 3-68, 4-138, 5-139, 6-165, 7-178, 8-249, 9-278, 10-278.

Bowling: Zaheer Khan 10-0-67-0, Sreesanth 8-1-34-2, V R V Singh 7.4-0-54-4, Ramesh Powar 10-0-36-3, Murali Kartik 10-0-52-1, Venugopala Rao 1-0-10-0, T P Singh 1-0-10-0, Rohit Sharma 1-0-14-0.