By ICF Staff
October 14 2005

India Seniors won the Challenger Trophy final over India B, thanks to a very good innings by Vidyut Siva. Selectors announce team for Lanka and SA ODI series. India won, but no thanks to the regulars who play in their ODI team.

India B were sent in to bat first and they did so poorly, as top order Robin Uthappa, Shikhar Dhawan, S Sriram and Dinesh Mongia all caved in quickly. Zaheer Khan bowled an inspired spell to start the collapse and Murali Kartik ran through the tail. Parthiv Patel was the best batsman with a responsible 39, unlucky to be given out LBW to a thick edge as India B were bowled out for a paltry 177 within 43 overs, and looked to be very much out of the race.

However, India turned in an unconvincing batting display as has been the case throughout this series other than a couple of batsmen. This time, their saviours Yuvraj and Rao both fell early and Tendulkar also fell cheap despite an ominous start to his innings. Dhoni and Yadav duly followed the procession.

Fortunately, they had young Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan to thank for standing tall among the ruins with a splendid 87(107) to take India to victory, and once again the Seniors won without a significant contribution from their regulars. Sree Santh turned in another very good spell for 3 wickets, while 16-year old leg spinner Piyush Chawla performed brilliantly, deceiving Tendulkar with the googly and also picking up Yuvraj and Dhoni before India scrambled home.

Their performances will be worrying as they head into home ODI series against impressive Sri Lanka and South Africa, for which Rahul Dravid has been appointed captain in place of the injured Sourav Ganguly.

Several youngsters have made an impression during this series, including Sree Santh, VRV Singh, Robin Uthappa, Vidyut Siva, Piyush Chawla, RP Singh and Shikhar Dhawan. Of these, the selectors have rewarded pacemen Sree Santh and RP Singh with a place in the India squad, as well as Test opener Gautam Gambhir, while Venu Rao, Suresh Raina and JP Yadav were allowed to stay on. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and L Balaji have been dropped, and Sourav Ganguly and Mohammad Kaif were out due to injury.

It remains to be seen whether controversial coach Greg Chappell can work better with Rahul Dravid than he has with Sourav Ganguly. Having started his coaching account with two failures abroad against Lanka and New Zealand, Chappell -- who never played in India during his career as an international cricketer -- will try to help India win at home.