India-Red set 304 run target for India-Green in Salve Trophy

Ahmedabad, Oct 26 (UNI) Riding on brilliant knocks by opener Gautam Gambhir (73) and an unbeaten 82 by middle order batsman S Badrinath, India-Red set a huge target of 304 runs for India-Green in the second day-night match of the NPK Salve Challenger Trophy at the Sardar Patel Gujarat Stadium at Motera this evening.

Gambhir drew the attention of BCCI's selection team led by Dilip Vengsarkar, who were present in the stadium, by maling an enterprising 73 in just 74 balls with an impressive strike rate of 98.64. In his knock, Gambhir had seven stylish boundaries to his credit.

While, providing real entertainment, S Badrinath made his unbeaten 82 runs in just 79 balls with a strike rate of 103.79.

Badrinath's 82 included one six and seven boundaries.

Earlier, India-Red's captain Mohammed Kaif won the toss and elected to bat to exploit the batting wicket of the Motera stadium.

Kaif's boys made 303 runs at the loss of seven wickets in the stipulated 50 overs.

Gambhir and Badrinath were involved in one 50-run partnership each. Gambhir made his half-century partnership for the 3rd wicket with K Goel in just 61 runs, in which Gambhir and Goel individually contributed 23 and 25 runs respectively. Badrinath made his 50-run partnership with V Kohli for the 5th wicket in just 59 balls. In this partnership, Badrinath and Kohli made their personal contributions of 22 and 32 respectively.

Others who notably helped in propping up India-Red's innings were K Goel (33), V Kohli (40) and P Patel (22).

For India-Green, which is led by test-card wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel, the most successful bowlers were Pankaj Singh and I Abdulla with two wickets each. Munaf Patel, R G Sharma and Piyush Chawla took one wicket each.

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