India 'A' win Challenger Series

India 'A' inflicted a humiliatng eight-wicket defeat on India Seniors in the final of the limited-overs Challenger series, to lift the Hero Honda N K P Salve trophy in Bangalore on Sunday.

India 'A' outplayed the senior team in all departments of the game and cruised past the modest target of 155 in only 32 overs losing just two wickets.

India 'A' bowlers had skittled out India Seniors for a paltry 154 in 35.5 overs, with only Hemang Badani, later declared the best batsman of the tournament, contributing a substantial score.

The Tamil Nadu left-hander, who had scores of 41 and 77 in the two league games, remained unbeaten on 52.

India 'A', who maintained an all-win record in the tournament, did not have any difficulty in achieving the target thanks to a solid 75-run knock from opener Sangram Singh. The other opener Daniel Manohar contributed 25 runs while skipper V V S Laxman was unbeaten on 29.

In a lop-sided final, India 'A' began their run chase confidently with Sangram and Manohar putting up 80 runs for the first wicket in 106 balls. The pair started attacking the senior bowling from the very start and scored at a fluent rate.

The first 50 of the innings came in the 11th over when Sangram lofted skipper Sourav Ganguly for a six in his first over which was also hit for two boundaries.

Manohar gave his partner good support before attempting a big shot off Harbhajan Singh which was caught by Sunil Joshi in the deep.

Sangram continued to flourish in the company of his captain Laxman and raised the 100 of the team in 21.4 overs.

At the half-way stage (25 overs), India 'A' were comfortably placed at 118 for one.

Sangram, who reached his fifty off just 52 balls, finally fell to Harbhajan Singh with Tinu Yohannan coming up with a brilliant catch running backwards. His 75 came off 78 balls and included 11 fours and a six.

Laxman and Rohan Gavaskar, who remained unbeaten on 18, then completed the formalities to register a fine win.

Earlier, Badani had waged a lonely battle for the Seniors. After losing opener Shiv Sunder Das (4) and Jacob Martin (1) with just six runs on the board, India Seniors looked to be recovering through a good partnership between Deep Dasgupta and Virender Sehwag.

The pair added only 32 runs for the third wicket before Dasgupta was bowled by Daniel Manohar for 12. A lot was expected from Sehwag, who had hit a scintillating century in the previous game, but after showing glipmses of brilliance during his 16-ball 22, he snicked an unplayable delivery from Zaheer Khan to wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra to leave the team in the doldrums.

Ganguly, who had scores of two and one coming as an opener in the two league matches, decided to come lower down the order but that did not make much difference to his batting fortunues. Keen to get among the runs before the one-day series against England, Ganguly today found his 22-run knock end abruptly when a brilliant throw from Yuvraj Singh found him short of his crease.

At 82 for six, all seemed to be lost for the senior team, who had gone down by two wickets to India 'A' in the league match also. Badani tried to bring the innings back on rail in the company of another left-hander Sunil Joshi but the two could manage just 34 runs for the seventh wicket.

Left-arm spinner Murali Kartik polished off the tail to finish with three wickets for 28 runs. Badani was left unbeaten on 52 off 53 balls that included four boundaries and a six.

Fast bowler Ajit Agarkar who claimed two wickets for India 'A' was named the best bowler of the tournament while Yuvraj Singh was selected the best fielder. Off-spinner Sarandeep Singh won the Player of the Series award.

Mail Cricket Editor