M Vijay scored an impressive 155 and Cheteshwar Pujara came up with yet another sterling knock as India B posted a massive 356 for three against India A in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy final at Khanderi Stadium here on Tuesday.
India’s A Shikhar Dhawan (61) and Ajinkya Rahane (64) madevaliant attempts to get the team past the line, but the target was a daunting one. They were eventually bowled out for 217.
India B suffered huge blows before the toss, with opener S Aniruddha and seamers Munaf Patel and Praveen Kumar ruled out. Ishant Sharma replaced Harshal Patel in the India A team.
After Pujara opted to bat, Baba Aparajith accompanied Vijay to face the new ball. The opening pair strung together a 68-run stand before Aparajith tried to smash Pragyan Ojha out of the park, only to balloon it to Ajinkya Rahane at point.
It brought Pujara, who was unbeaten for 395 minutes in his previous two outings, to the middle. The Saurashtra batsman took time to settle in before increasing his scoring rate. And just when it looked like he’d score his third consecutive century, Parwinder Awana dismissed him for 79.
Meanwhile at the other end, Vijay was in his element. The Team India discard was middling the ball well and played some effortless shots. He reached the three-figure mark in 94 balls with 10 boundaries and three sixes. He then took the bowlers to the cleaners, pocketing another 50 runs in just 24 balls. He was all set to register the highest individual score of the tournament —by overtaking Pujara’s 158* — but perished for 155 while attempting to hit out Abhimanyu Mithun.
Brief scores: India ‘B’ 356/3 in 50 overs (M Vijay 155, C Pujara 79*, K Jadhav 60*) beat India ‘A’ 217 all out in 42.1 overs
(A Rahane 64, S Dhawan 61; S Binny 3/26, R Jadeja 2/37, B Aparajith 2/38) by 139 runs
Comments
Add new comment