da bet7： The India Seniors bowlers came good on the big stage and applied the choke effectively as they restricted India B to a modest 177 in the final of the Challenger Trophy at Mohali
da 888： The Bulletin by Siddhartha Vaidyanathan at Mohali13-Oct-2005
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Murali Kartik’s five-for helped India Seniors to a title triumph © Getty Images
A canny spell of left-arm spin bowling from Murali Kartik, when he finished with his best one-day figures, set it up before S Vidyut’s spirited 87 ensured that they cruised to a comfortable three-wicket win in the final of the Challenger Trophy in Mohali. The India Seniors bowlers applied the choke effectively, after choosing to field first, and restricted India B to a modest 177, a total which, despite the impressive efforts of Piyush Chawla, and S Sreesanth was never going to be enough with a rampaging batting line-up to contend with.India B were undone by Zaheer Khan early on, when he induced the top-order batsmen into indiscretion, and were flummoxed by Kartik’s accuracy while they tried to accelerate. Once they had lost their top order cheaply, Kartik got into the act with a controlled spell, extracted disconcerting turn, mopped up the tail with hardly any fuss and ended with the second-best spell in the history of the Challenger Trophy. The chase was kick-started by Vidyut, the opening batsman from Tamil Nadu who got his first chance in the tournament, with some gorgeous cover-drives and, unlike the rest; he handled the spinners with assurance en route to an entertaining 87 that included 15 fours.Vidyut, a tall aggressive left-hander, started off as a left-arm spinner and turned in some fine performances in the Under-19 level. But his batting improved just as his bowling fell away as he turned into one of the mainstays in the Tamil Nadu batting line-up, impressing with his flashy batting at the top of the order in one-dayers. He kick-started the chase by belting S Sreesanth, who was named as the Man of the Series for his pacy bursts, and used his feet delectably when the spinners came on. He lost partners at regular intervals but kept up the tempo and left when only five more were required.Most of the other batsmen struggled against the wiles of Chawla, a 16-year-old legspinner from Uttar Pradesh. Not too many bowlers deceive Sachin Tendulkar with a googly and to sneak one in through the gate, as Tendulkar tried to cut, was a stunning sight. Chawla, who came into bowl within the first ten overs, continued to toss the ball up, rip it past the bat and was comfortable both over and around the wicket. Sreesanth too continued his fine showing with the ball – coming back after a pasting in the first two overs to finish with 3 for 32 and always steaming in – that only delayed the inevitable.The scales, though, tilted earlier in the day when India B stuttered against Zaheer and Kartik. Their problems began right at the top with Robin Uthappa, who produced a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hundred yesterday, slashing airily at a full-pitched one as Mohammad Kaif completed a straightforward chance. Kaif, though, had to hobble off in the 9th over owing to a hamstring pull and didn’t take part in the game therafter. Sridharan Sriram experienced a similar fate and his dismissal was almost a mirror image of the first wicket.And the road got bumpier when Dinesh Mongia, the captain, cut recklessly, just like he had done in their first game, and offered a simple chance to the backward-point fielder. The rest of the innings was based on slow-moving partnerships as India B tried to post a modest total. Shikhar Dhawan and Yousuf Pathan weathered a tough period but both fell just after they appeared to have found their groove. Parthiv Patel impressed one again, , with some punchy strokeplay, but was unlucky to be given out lbw when he got an inside edge to an incoming ball from Kartik.Ravikant Shukla was solid in his patient 26, made off 71 balls without a single boundary, but the rest fell around him while going for the big hits. With Kartik bowling with such accuracy, though, they didn’t stand a chance.India B
Robin Uthappa c Kaif b Zaheer 9 (13 for 1)
Sridharan Sriram c Rao b Zaheer 8 (29 for 2)
Dinesh Mongia c Yadav b Harbhajan 7 (43 for 3)
Yousuf Pathan c Tendulkar b Harbhajan 20 (70 for 4)
Shikhar Dhawan c Dhoni b Zaheer 26 (91 for 5)
Parthiv Patel lbw b Kartik 39 (141 for 6)
Sunny Singh b Kartik 5 (150 for 7)
Piyush Chawla st Dhoni b Kartik 5 (157 for 8)
Amit Bhandari st Dhoni b Kartik 4 (164 for 9)
Sreesanth st Dhoni b Kartik 5 (177 all out)
India SeniorsSachin Tendulkar b Chawla 22 (46 for 1)
Yuvraj Singh c Shukla b Chawla 5 (67 for 2)
Venugopal Rao c Parthiv b Sreesanth 18 (113 for 3)
Mahendra Singh Dhoni st Patel b Chawla 6 (122 for 4)
Jai Prakash Yadav c Uthappa b Mongia 10 (143 for 5)
S Vidyut b Sreesanth 87 (173 for 6)
Satyajit Parab b Sreesanth 4 (177 for 7)
