India Green lift Challenger Trophy
LUCKNOW:Young Arya Sethi and Nehal Wadhera smashed sparkling half centuries, whereas skipper K Nithish Kumar Reddy took three wickets to help India Green win the Under-19 Challenger Trophy, defeating defending champions India Blue by six wickets, at the Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium here on Friday.
Dehradun boy Arya, who had 69 runs in first three matches in the tournament with 58 being his highest, scored a well-calculated 73 in 108 balls with the help of 10 hits to the fence to put India Green on the road to winning. Only this September, the righthander had a 50-run knock against Manipur in the Vijay Hazare Trophy.
While Wadhera from Ludhiana remained unbeaten at 51, which came off 58 balls with the help of four hits to the fence and a six as India Green romped home in 43.4 overs, losing four wickets. Rishabh Chouhan too remained unbeaten on 20.
India Green started a bit slow as innings first boundary came in the fourth over when Sethi clobbered an overpitched deliver from H Trilok Nag in the extra covers region. Thereafter, there was no stopping to him.
Even after losing his senior partner and skipper K Nithish Kumar Reddy (19, 30b, 4x4) in the 11th over of the innings with scoreboard reading 37, Arya didn’t lose his cool and 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, Arya did two small partnerships to strengthen the innings. First he collected 58-run for the third wicket with SA Ahuja (26, 34b, 3x4) and managed 43-run for the fourth wicket with Nehal Wadhera. Thereafter, nothing was left for India Green as both Wadhera and Rishabh Chouhan helped the side sail past rival’s total in style.
Earlier, skipper Pradosh Ranjan Paul underlined his potential once again with yet another halfcentury, helping the side post a challenging 206 in 47.3 overs. His 78-ball 63, which contained five hits to the fence, steadied Indian Blue’s innings early in the innings while batting first after winning the toss.
Tirupur’s Pal also emerged as the highest run getter in the tournament with 286 runs in four matches with an unbeaten 126 being his best.
Opener Qamran Iqbal, who hit run-a-ball 63 with the help of 10 fours, along with Swastik Samal (21, 19b, 4x4) laid a solid foundation, stitching together 65 runs for the opening wicket. But the fall of Iqbal and Paul wickets, put the side on the back-foot for a while and among the remaining eight batsmen, only two could cross the double figure mark.
Skipper and right-arm seamer K Nithish Kumar Reddy remained the best performer for the side, bagging three wickets, whereas Anirudh Chowdhary, Atharva Vinod Ankolekar, and Ra Choudhary shared six wickets between them.
BRIEF SCORES
India Blue 206 in 47.3 overs (Q Iqbal 63, PR Paul 63, KNK Reddy 3/25, A Chowdhary 2/38, AV Ankolekar 2/32, Ra Choudhary 2/34) lost to India Green 209 /4 in 43.4 overs (A Sethi 73, N Wadhera 51*, AS Sandhu 3/39).