It was an evening when lesser-known players overshadowed the individual efforts of the established ones, including the rejuvenated Ishant Sharma. Maharashtra’s Harshad Khadiwale and Jharkhand’s Ishank Jaggi, threw away the opportunity to make big scores after having begun well in their Challengers debut.

Tamil Nadu’s Suresh Kumar ought have stayed till the end and taken India Blue home. His dismissal for 87, 13 shy of the target, led to an exciting finish, but Blue scraped through by one wicket with three balls to spare. S Badrinath’s India Red were bowled out for 248.

Suresh held Blue’s hopes, thriving in the company of the promoted Harbhajan Singh and later with Dhoni. Shouldering the responsibility after seeing both Harbhajan and Dhoni fall, the 24-year-old was at ease while tackling Munaf Patel and Ishant Sharma.

Earlier, Khadiwale (55, 51b, 7×4), batting above Badrinath at number three, was up against India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh as early as the 11th over. The 21-year-old from Pune showed tremendous confidence and maturity required at this level. His exposure trips with Maharashtra Cricket Association to Bangladesh in May and Australia in June this year made him more confident. This offset the limited List A experience he had coming into this game. Any youngster, who has been involved in the run out of a senior player, especially the captain, is bound to get jittery. But not Khadiwale. After being involved in a mix-up that resulted in his Badrinath’s dismissal, the Pune lad carried on to score his fifth half-century.

Jaggi, the 20-year-old from Jharkhand, derived strength from the presence of his illustrious State-mate in the opposition camp, Dhoni. Using his height to the advantage, Jaggi did Read more…

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An early exit in the recent Champions Trophy has opened a can of worms in Indian cricket. At a time when the raging debate is about the future of the 50-over cricket, India’s failure to go beyond the league stage has raised a lot of questions, mainly in the bowling department.

In this backdrop, the Challenger Series for the NKP Salve Trophy among the best available India players, including M. S. Dhoni, Harbhajan Singh, Abhishek Nayar, Yusuf Pathan, Ishant Sharma and Suresh Raina who returned from South Africa, will acquire much significance.

Otherwise, the tournament, at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium here from Thursday — that coincides with the richest cricketing event, the Champions League — would have been reduced to just another in the BCCI calendar.

Eight of the India players involved in the Champions Trophy — Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik, Ashish Nehra, Amit Sharma, R.P. Singh, Rahul Dravid, Praveen Kumar and Virat Kohli — will be turning out for their respective franchisees in the T20 competition, giving more players, some hardly known outside their states, a chance to rub shoulders with the likes of Harbhajan and Dhoni.

Dhiraj Goswami from Assam, Jalaj Saxena from Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand’s Ishank Jaggi and Maharashtra’s Ameya Shrikhande are a few of the little-known players who would be keen to make an impression.

Performances in the Challengers have often been considered for India selection. Though major changes in the Indian squad are not expected as Dhoni’s men look to bury the forgettable Champions Trophy and take on the winners Australia in a seven-match ODI series starting in Baroda on October 25, the selectors also do not want to send wrong signals by Read more…

Administrator India Domestic Abhishek Nayar, Amit Sharma, Ashish Nehra, Assam, BCCI, Blogs.CMDN.com, Challengers, Champions Trophy, Cricket, Cricket Blogs, Dhiraj Goswami, Dinesh Karthik, Gautam Gambhir, Harbhajan Singh, Ishank Jaggi, Ishant Sharma, Jalaj Saxena, M. S. Dhoni, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, NKP Salve Trophy, ODI, Praveen Kumar, Rahul Dravid, RP Singh, Suresh Raina, Virat Kohli, Yusuf Pathan