India Seniors win Challenger series

India Seniors, propelled by magnificent knocks from Hemang Badani and Virender Shewag, overcame initial hiccups to beat India A by four wickets in the final of the Challenger series and win the N K P Salve trophy, at the M A Chidambaran stadium, on Thursday night.

Set an imposing target of 312 runs in 50 overs, the Seniors were home in 48.1 overs, scoring 315 for the loss of just six wickets.

What a turnaround it was after India A had the Seniors reeling at 96 for 5, with skipper Sourav Ganguly, V V S Laxman, Shiv Sundar Das, Vikram Rathour and Yuvraj Singh all back in the pavilion. It needed a Herculean effort from Shewag and Badani, the last two recognised bats, to lift them. And the duo responded in grand style. They keep their cool, went for their shots and achieved their end.

Twenty-two-year-old Shewag was unlucky to miss out on a century. Going for a quick single after Badani called, the Delhi batsman failed to make his ground in time as Reetinder Singh Sodhi threw from mid-on to wicketkeeper Nayan Mongia. Shewag made 94, which was studded with 9 fours and 2 sixes.

That was in the 43rd over and it looked all was over for the Seniors. However, Badani showed the stuff he is made off as he and Sunil Joshi got the required runs. Badani was unbeaten on 107, which had 7 fours and 3 sixes, while Joshi made 22, which had a four and a six in it.

For his match-winning effort, Badani was adjudged the man of the series by adjudicator John Wright, coach of the India team.

Ajit Agarkar, later adjudged the best bowler of the tournament, bagged two wickets as his colleague Venkatesh Prasad went wicketless and for 78 runs in 10 overs.

Sridharan Sriram and Dinesh Mongia were adjudged best fielder and best batsman respectively.

Earlier, Rahul Dravid played a captain's knock to lead India A to 311 for six in their 50 overs.

Dravid, 88, and Jacob Martin, 62, put up a fine batting display to overcome a slow start after India A had elected to bat.

Batting with a runner in Sriram, Dravid stuck to one end and played a patient innings, allowing Martin and Hrishikesh Kanitkar (56) score from the other end, as India A added 177 runs in the last 25 runs.

Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan bowled a tidy line and length to put India A on the backfoot but the floodgates opened once Dravid and Martin got going.

Srinath struck in the third over of the innings by having Sriram (4) caught by wicketkeeper Rathour with the total 18, and then dismissed the other opener, Sadagoppan Ramesh (26), in the same fashion after the addition of 29 runs.

Dravid and Kanitkar then combined in a 99-run third wicket stand to seize the initiative. They batted patiently, preferring to see off the pacemen.

The 100 of the innings came in the 21st over after which Dravid and Kanitkar decided to step up the pace. But Kanitkar, who brought up his 50 off 63 balls, was caught by Yuvraj at covers off Sehwag for a well-made 56 that contained eight fours.

Martin then joined his skipper in the most fruitful partnership of the day and the duo scored at a brisk pace, working around singles and twos with occasional boundaries.

They put on 101 runs for the fourth wicket before Dravid chased a wide delivery from Ashish Nehra and his slash found the safe hands of Yuvraj. Dravid's 88 came off 105 balls and was studded with five fours.

Martin too left the scene soon when a strong throw from the boundary by Shiv Sunder Das straight to Rathour saw him short of his crease while attempting a third run. He made 61 from just 58 balls and hit eight fours.

Agarkar then played a characteristic hurricane knock of 27 off just 15 balls with two fours and a six before being caught by Khan off Nehra.

Agarkar added 40 valuable runs in 18 balls with Sodhi, who remained unbeaten on 22.

India Seniors bowlers, who were quite disciplined in the beginning, could not contain the assault and gave a number of extras too. Srinath and Nehra ended with two wickets apiece while Sehwag claimed one.

Scoreboard

India A:
S Ramesh c Rathour b Srinath 26
S Sriram c Rathour b Srinath 4
R Dravid c Yuvraj Singh b Nehra 88
H Kanitkar c Yuvraj Singh b Shewag 56
J Martin run out 61
A Agarkar c Khan b Nehra 27
R Sodhi not out 22
N Mongia not out 3
Extras (B1, LB9, W6, NB8) 24
Total (6 wickets, 50 overs, 227 mins) 311
Did not bat: Venkatesh Prasad, Iqbal Siddiqui, Rahul Sanghvi.
Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-47, 3-146, 4-247, 5-263, 6-303.
Bowling
Srinath 10- 0- 50- 2
Khan 10- 0- 63- 0
Nehra 10- 0- 69- 2
Ganguly 8- 0- 44- 0
Joshi 7- 0- 48- 0
Shewag 5- 0- 27- 1

India Seniors
S Das b Agarkar 14
V Rathour c Sanghvi b Agarkar 12
VVS Laxman run out 12
S Ganguly b Siddiqui 34
H Badani not out 107
Yuvraj Singh c Agarkar b Sanghvi 7
V Shewag run out 94
S Joshi not out 22
Extras (LB 4, W3, NB6) 13
Total (for 6 wickets, 48.1 overs) 315
Did not bat: Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan, Javagal Srinath.
Fall of wickets: 1-14, 2-33, 3-76, 4-76, 5-96, 6-264.
Bowling
Agarkar 10- 1- 54- 2
Prasad 10- 1- 78- 0
Siddiqui 8- 0- 48- 1
Sanghvi 10- 0- 57- 1
Sriram 1- 0- 9- 0
Sodhi 6- 1- 41- 0
Kanitkar 3- 0- 20- 0
Ramesh 0.1- 0- 4- 0

Related reports:
India A beat India Seniors
Ganguly steers India Seniors to victory
India A, India Seniors in final

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