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Nagpur: Abhinav Mukund smashed a sparkling century as India Red recorded a comfortable five-wicket win over India Blue in the opening match of Challenger Series.
The Tamil Nadu left-hander loves batting in the Orange City and that was obvious again on Monday as Mukund's fourth hundred at this venue gave India Red an ideal start to their campaign in the Challenger Trophy.
Unlike his other illustrious teammates, Mukund may not have the flamboyance but he has a level head on his shoulders. On Monday, he showed why he has been looked at as one of the future stars.
Mukund's brilliant 127 (133b, 10x4) and his match-winning 147-run fifth wicket stand with Wriddhiman Saha (65, 80, 10x4) set up a five-wicket victory against India Blue. Red chased the down the target of 275 in 47.3 overs with ease.
The England tour may have been disastrous for India but this youngster must have learnt a few good things. Mukund showed great temperament and patience under pressure.
It was a perfect one-day innings which had lots of ones and twos, coupled with some classy boundaries. Never in his three-hour stay did Mukund look in trouble.
The dressing room must have felt the pressure when Menaria departed with 150 more to get and not much batting to come. However, Mukund and Saha made light work of India Blue bowling.
With a respectable 274-8 on the board, India Blue's best chance was to strike with the new ball, which they did. The dangerous Delhi duo of Gautam Gambhir and Shikhar Dhawan was back in hut in the first 10 balls.
While Dhawan's was a well-planned dismissal, Gambhir got a cracker of a delivery from Sangwan that came in sharply to knock the middle stick. In came Yusuf Pathan who hasn't got many opportunities to bat up the order.
This was his best chance to prove his critics wrong. After a few lusty blows Yusuf gifted his wicket away when his team required him to build the innings.
Earlier, India Red spinners - Bhargav Bhatt, Piyush Chawla and Yusuf Pathan - made life difficult for Blue's batsmen on a decent batting wicket.
If India Blue managed to put up a respectable total on the board, it's largely due to a magnificent 37-ball 50 (5x4, 2x6) by Mandeep Singh, who batted with a lot of flair and aggression after the 81-run partnership between skipper Subramaniam Badrinath (56, 80b, 4x4) and Manish Pandey (45, 48b, 5x4, 1x6).
Brief scores
India Blue 274 for 8 (Badrinath 56, Singh 50, Chawla 2-42)
India Reds 275 for 5 (Mukund 127, Saha 65*, Sangwan 3-61)
Results India Reds won by five wickets
