NKP Salve Challenger Trophy: India Blue defeat Delhi by 18 runs despite Bhatia's heroics

Virender Sehwag’s audition for a middle order spot begins on a promising note

India Blue got their NKP Salve Challenger Trophy campaign off to a winning start by registering an 18-run victory over Delhi, despite the heroices of Rajat Bhatia, who picked up three wickets and scored a half-century.

Put into bat first by Delhi captain Virat Kohli, the India Blue openers Naman Ojha and Akshath Reddy, fortunate to survive a probing spell from Sumit Narwal, got their team off to a steady start.

Rajat Bhatia’s introduction did the trick for Delhi, as the wily medium pacer picked up three quick wickets to reduce India Blue from 56/0 to 66/3. Ojha, looking to paddle sweep, was trapped lbw while both Manish Pandey and Sibsankar Roy saw their woodwork disturbed.

Reddy, although was not entirely convincing, managed to score a 77-ball 53 before losing his wicket to Varun Sood, attempting an ugly hoick. However, Abhishek Nayar was unflustered by the fall of wickets at the other end.

The Southpaw immediately hit Sood out of the attack and spoiled Ashish Nehra’s figures, who conceded 38 runs of his last three overs, enroute to scoring a counter-attacking 73-ball 91.

India Blue were 222/6 when Nayar was finally dismissed. An unbeaten seventh wicket partnership of 48 runs of the last 7.1 overs between Piyush Chawla (40) Bhuvneshwar Kumar (29) made sure that the innings did not come to an abrupt end. Again Nehra was the bowler targeted, as India Blue set a challenging target of 271 in 50 overs.

In reply, Delhi were rocked early in the innings as they lost both Mohit Sharma and Virat Kohli cheaply to Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Kumar was impressive with the new ball, like he has always been, and almost had his third, if not for Nayar dropping an easy chance at slip to give Unmukt Chand an early reprieve.

Virender Sehwag, coming in at number 4, made sure that Kumar did not run through the middle order as he took, not just him, but all the fast bowlers out of the attack with an aggressive 38-ball 59. The knock sent the crowd into a delirious state, bringing back memories of the Sehwag of yesteryears.

However, the loss of Chand, run out in a mix-up with Sehwag, and Sehwag, caught and bowled by Iresh Saxena, in quick succession meant the joy was short-lived for the Delhi fans. At 85/4, and with no real accomplished batsmen to follow, India Blue looked like a team that had lost its plot.

Bhatia delayed the inevitable by scoring a 89-ball 65. Nehra chipped in with a 41-ball 37 as the pair entertained hopes of an improbable win, getting as close as needing 47 off the last seven overs. But Ankit Rajpoot uprooted Bhatia’s middle stump with an off-cutter to seal the victory for India Blue, as Delhi fell short by 18 runs with 2.1 overs to spare.