India Green ride fifties from Sethi, Wadhera to win title
LUCKNOW: Arya Sethi and Nehal Wadhera smashed sparkling half-centuries and skipper K Nithish Kumar Reddy took three wickets to help India Green defeat India Blue by six wickets to win the Under-19 Challenger Trophy here on Friday.
Sethi struck his second fifty of the tournament with a well-paced 73 (108 b, 10x4) to pust his team on the road to victory while Wadhera remained unbeaten on 51 (58b, 4x4, 1x6) when India Green coasted to 209/4 with 6.2 overs to spare, having dismissed India Blue for 206 in 47.3 overs.
India Green started a bit slow as the first boundary of the innings came in the fourth over when Sethi struck an overpitched delivery from Trilok Nag past extra cover. There was no stopping to him after that.
Even after losing senior partner and skipper Nithish Kumar Reddy (19) in the 11th over, Sethi kept stroking the ball nicely around the green lush ground on a sunny but cool day.
Before offering a simple catch to Mandar Mahale off AS Sandhu, Ar ya raised two partnerships 58 Ahuja (26) and 43 for the fourth wicket with Wadhera. Thereafter, Wadhera and Rishabh Chouhan helped the side sail past India Blue’s total in style.
Earlier, India Blue skipper Pradosh Ranjan Paul underlined his potential again with a halfcentury, helping the side post a challenging total. His 63 (78b, 4x4) steadied the innings early in the innings after India Blue had elected to bat. Paul also emerged the highest run-getter in the tournament with 286 runs in four matches with an unbeaten 126 being his best.
Opener QamranIqbal whohit fours, along with Swastik Samal (21) laid a solid foundation, stitching together 65 runs for the opening wicket. But the fall of Iqbal and Paul put the side on the back foot with only two of the remaining batsmen managing to reach double figures. India Green skipper and seamer Nithish Reddy was the best performer, bagging three wickets. Anirudh Chowdhary, Atharva Vinod Ankolekar and Ra Choudhary shared six wickets.
Brief scores: India Green 209/4 in 43.4 overs (A Sethi 73, N Wadhera 51no, AS Sandhu 3/39) bt India Blue 206 in 47.3 overs (Q Iqbal 63 PR Paul 63 K Reddy