Abhinav Mukund and Wasim Jaffer smashed gallant centuries as India Blue crushed India Green by 88 runs in Nagpur on Saturday to set up the title clash of the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy tournament against India Red.
Mukund and Jaffer raised a huge 265-run stand, highest in Challenger series, for the opening wicket to lead India Blue to amass a massive 351 for two wickets after opting to bat.
They then restricted a fighting India Green team to 263 for nine to move to the final.
Tanmay Srivastava did his best by scoring a century for India Green. Srivastava and Srikkanth Anirudh gave India Greens a great start by putting on a 113-run stand.
Srivastava's sedate knock came off 133 balls with just seven boundaries while Anirudha batted aggressively, which included nine shots to the fence.
Ajinkya Rahane and R Inder Singh got starts after their skipper Suresh Raina fell cheaply, but could not convert those into big innings.
Paceman Ashok Dinda took three wickets while Siddharth Trivedi and Harabjan Singh took two wickets each for India Blue.
Earlier, Mukund and Jaffer hit majestic centuries after quite a slow start. The two batsmen were in terrific form as they scored boundaries at will, severely punishing the India Green bowlers.
Jaffer hit 17 elegant boundaries and a six in his run-a-ball knock while Mukund's 123-ball innings was studded with nine fours and a six.
Brief scores
India Blue 351-2 in 50 overs (Jaffer 143, Mukund 114; Kulkarni 1/69) beat India Green 263-9 in 50 overs (Srivastava 100, Anirudh63; Dinda 3/54) by 88 runs.
