By ICF Staff
October 11 2005

India Seniors won Match 2 over India B in the Challenger Trophy after a record partnership between Yuvraj Singh and Venugopal Rao. India A started promisingly enough as Shikhar Dhawan and Robin Uthappa handled the India Senior pacemen confidently.

However, Ajit Agarkar got the breakthrough when he had Uthappa caught at cover and Dhawan fell caught behind, trying to cut Harbhajan Singh.

Most of the India B top and middle order batted well with S Sriram, Dinesh Mongia and Yusuf Pathan all playing solid knocks, capped by a sterling innings of 53(44) from wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel. However, the lower order collapsed as pacemen Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar turned in a good performance to restrict them to 240 all out in the final over.

India B's rookie paceman Sree Santh bowled with fire to send back Sachin Tendulkar and Mohammad Kaif cheaply, and India were left tottering at 33/3. Sree Santh was unlucky not to have had the early scalps of both Venugopal Rao, whom he bowled first ball but was adjudged to have overstepped, and Yuvraj Singh whom he had caught behind by Parthiv Patel, the umpire being one of the few in the stadium not to see or hear the clear snick.

Yuvraj and Rao made good on those reprieves, putting together a 209-run partnership to take India home without the loss of another wicket and 4 overs to spare. Rao just got past the century mark, while Yuvraj was stranded at 99 when the target was reached, however Yuvraj deservedly won the Man of Match award.

The matchup between India A and India B tomorrow will determine which two teams will make it to the final on Thursday.