Chawla hit stunning 92 as Challenger final ends in a tie

NAGPUR: India Red's Piyush Chawla smashed a stunning 85-ball 92 as the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy final against India Green ended in a tie in dramatic circumstances for the two sides to be declared joint winners on Thursday.
India Green were cruising all along after posting 238 for eight as they reduced India Red to 102 for five in the 23rd over of the latters' run chase.
Chawla then single-handedly kept India Red in the hunt to chase down the target of 239 with flurry of shots before his side almost lost the plot.
India Red kept on losing wickets and asking rate crept up towards the close and India Green bowlers were also have to be blamed for allowing Chawla to take the match to the wire and sensationally tie it.
The match seemed to have slipped out of India Red's hands as they needed 46 runs from the last five overs and Chawla struck a flurry of boundaries to take the match to the last over.
India Red needed 17 for a win from the last over bowled by Samad Fallah and Chawla took 16 from it with the help of a four and six.
India Red could have even won the match as after hitting a six from the penultimate ball, they needed two runs to win. But to cap the thrilling match, Chawla was run out off a wide ball. He ran for a single and India Green wicketkeeper Muralidharen Gautam had all the time in the world to remove the bails for the match to end in a tie.
For India Green, Harbhajan top-scored with a 54-ball unbeaten 49 when his side were put into bat. Abhimanyu Mithun and Iqbal Abdulla scalped three wickets each.
Earlier, India Red came up with a disciplined bowling show to restrict India Green to 238 for eight.
Put into bat, India Green kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and thanks to captain Harbhajan Singh's unbeaten knock of 49 off 54 balls with the help of three fours and a six, they could post a respectable total.
TP Sudhindra (2 for 36), Pankaj Singh (2 for 44) and Jaydev Unadkat (2 for 65) claimed two wickets each, while Piyush Chawla (1 for 48) and Yusuf Pathan (one for 6) took a wicket apiece
Mohammad Kaif (41) and Srikkanth Anirudha (39) also chipped in with the bat to contribute to the team's total.
Wednesday's two centurions -- Robin Uthappa (7) and Srikkanth Anirudha (39) -- failed to repeat their batting blitzkrieg on Thursday. The former, in fact departed in the third over itself off Unadkat's bowling.
Anirudha though tried to go after the Reds' bowlers but new batsman in Ishank Jaggi (11) failed to lend him a good support at the other end.
Anirudha found an able ally in Kaif and the duo put up a 34-run together before Sudhindra claimed the prized wicket of Anirudha for a 41-ball 39, studded with seven fours.
Kaif then partnered with Tirumalasetti Suman (29) to steady the boat and the two shared a crucial 59-run partnership for the fourth wicket.
Just when things started looking bright for Greens, Yusuf Pathan took a catch off his own bowling to dismiss Suman.
In the next over, Pankaj Singh trapped Kaif LBW to put an end to his knock of 41 off 67 ball including three boundaries.
Soon, the Greens were reeling at 151 for six. But Harbhajan made sure that he led from the front.
The captain remained not out after batting with Sumit Narwal (18), followed by Iqbal Abdulla (18) and then Abhimanyu Mithun (12 not out) to take the team beyond 200-run mark.