Sehwag en route to his 75 on Saturday

Ahmedabad: India Blue registered a 91-run victory over Indian Green to make the Sunday’s final in the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy At Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium in Motera on Saturday.

India Blue rode brilliant half-centuries by Virender Sehwag, Arjun Yadav, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik to score 330 for eight in their allotted 50 overs before bundling out their rivals for 239 in just 38.2 overs.

Off-spinner Ramesh Powar and leggie Amit Mishra were most successful bowlers for India Blue picking up three wickets each.

With the victory, India Blue topped the table with nine points, including a bonus point from Saturday’s game.

Sehwag, who has been recalled to the Indian ODI squad for the first two matches against Pakistan next month, made a breezy 75 runs in just 57 balls. He struck 14 fours and a six and provided the much-needed momentum to his team after they elected to bat.

Later, Karthik (65), Yadav (65) and Raina (64) made significant contributions to help pile up the mammoth total.

Faced with a stiff asking rate of six runs per over, India Green could not keep up the momentum needed to chase down the big target as they kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

After openers Yusuf Pathan (six) and S. Anirudha (13) fell cheaply, skipper Parthiv Patel (53) and Rohit Sharma (48) stitched together a 81-run partnership for the third wicket.

However, after they departed, the chase fell apart with Manoj Tiwary (16), Abhishek Nayar (22) and Cheteshwar Pujara (four) not contributing much.