JOIN USChoosing to bat, India Blue, riding on half-centuries from Ajinkya Rahane (84) and Ravindra Jadeja (58) cruised to 251 for nine in the allotted 50 overs. India Red, spearheaded by Yusuf’s blazing 63 (30b, 5x4, 5x6) and polished displays from Monish Mishra (42) and Iqbal Abdulla (30 n.o.), chased down the target with eight balls to spare.
Earlier, the dismissal of Saurabh Tiwary in India Reds' chase had reduced them to a precarious 89 for four but Yusuf's counterattack brought them back into contention. Yusuf's exploits for Rajasthan Royals in the middle order are well known and the crowd in Indore was treated to an air show.
INDIA BLUE: Shreevats Goswami (run out) 9, Shikhar Dhawan (run out) 0, Ajinkya Rahane c Abdulla b Dinda 84, Yuvraj c Kaarthick b Vinay 6, Manoj Tiwary lbw Tyagi 40, Ravindra Jadeja b Dinda 58, Wriddhiman Saha (run out) 35, Piyush Chawla c Tiwary b Tyagi 8, Yo Mahesh lbw Tyagi 0, Umesh Yadav (not out), Rudra Pratap Singh (not out) 0. Extras (B-1, LB-5, W-5) 11. Total (for 9 wkts, 50 overs) 251.
Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-10, 3-31, 4-136, 5-149, 6-219, 7-244, 8-251, 9-251.
Bowling: R Vinay Kumar 10-0-59-1, Ashok Dinda 9-0-46-2, Sudeep Tyagi 9-1-40-3, Iqbal Abdulla 8-0-45-0, Virat Kohli 5-0-18-0, Yusuf Pathan 9-0-37-0.
INDIA RED: Manish Pandey c Dhawan b Yadav 11, Parthiv Patel c Tiwary b Singh 23, Virat Kohli c sub (Ganesh Satish) b Mahesh 18, Dinesh Kaarthick b Yuvraj 27, Saurabh Tiwary (run out) 22, Yusuf Pathan lbw Jadeja 63, Monish Mishra c sub (Ganesh Satish) b Mahesh 42, Iqbal Abdulla (not out) 30, R Vinay Kumar (not out) 5. Extras (LB-3, W-7, NB-1) 11. Total (for 7 wkts, 48.4 overs) 252.
Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-53, 3-54, 4-86, 5-169, 6-175, 7-237.
Bowling: Rudra Pratap Singh 7.4-1-44-1, Umesh Yadav 6-0-33-1, Ravindra Jadeja 10-0-42-1, Yo Mahesh 9-1-34-2, Piyush Chawla 10-0-63-0, Yuvraj Singh 6-1-33-1.