22-Oct-2008 159
With top five seniors on their way out and the six-match ODI series against England round the corner, the Challenger Series for NKP Salve Trophy, beginning here at Barabati Stadium, has assumed importance.
The four-match Challenger Series, involving three teams (India Blue, India Red and India Green), will be an ideal opportunity for discards and hopefuls to prove their mettle and stake claims for inclusion in the National side.
"The day-night Chellenger Series will also be a platform to prepare well for the home series against England," said Dav Whatmore, the in-charge of defending champions India Blue and the Director of Operations of the National Cricket Academy.
India Blue will be favourites to retain the trophy. The presence of larger number of star players including skipper Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthapa, Irfan Pathan, Dinesh Karthik and Virat Kohli gives them a distinct edge over the other two sides in the fray.
Yuvraj himself admitted that he was eyeing for a double hundred in the tournament. "My form has not been that good in recent times. Therefore, I am aiming to score a double hundred and bounce back into form," said the dashing left-hander after a three-hour-long practice session earlier in the day.
India Blue will take on India Red in the opening match on Thursday. Led by S Badrinath, India Red bank on batsmen Badrinath, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwai, stumper Parthiv Patel, seamers Pravin Kumar, L Balaji and leggie Piyush Chawla to win matches here.
India Red and India Green also sweated it out under lights for nearly three hours.
However, none of the two sides could give any idea about the their composition for the opening match. ``Players came together only yesterday evening. We had no time to do so,`` explained Whatmore.
But observing the new track at Barabati, Yuvraj said it would offer good bounce. He and Whatmore were unanimous in their opinion that the opening tie will be high-scoring contest.
Meanwhile, confusion prevailed as to who was in charge of the India Red team a day before it was supposed to open its campaign against India Blue in the Challenger Trophy.
Praveen Amre was appointed coach of the India red team by the Indian cricket board but the former India player said he had not received any communication from the BCCI. But Amre later informed that he had accepted the job.
Teams (from):
India Blue: Yuvaraj Singh (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Robin Uthappa, Virat Kohli, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Ravinder Singh, Irfan Pathan, Yogesh Takawale (wk), Ashok Dinda, Pradeep Sangwan, Chetanya Nanda, Arjun Yadav, Siddarth Trivedi, R Ashwin.
India Red: S Badrinath (capt), M Vijay, F Fazal, Manoj Tiwary, Rohit sHARMA, Jaydev Shah, Abhishek Nayar, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), Praveen Kumar, L Balaji, Piyush Chawla, Vinay Kumar, Monish Parmar, Parthiv Patel (wk).
Match timings: 2.30 pm onwards
