A sparkling hundred by skipper Rahul Dravid enabled India 'B' defeat India Seniors by 63 runs in the second encounter of the TVS Salve Challenger series, on Thursday.
The sparse crowd at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was treated to a superb batting diplay by their local hero, who struck a 97-ball 107 as India 'B' piled a mammoth 338 for 5 after winning the toss and batting first.
Dravid's 136-run partnership for the third wicket with Ajit Agarkar, who scored 57, set the tempo for the afternoon.
None of the India Seniors bowlers, barring left-arm spinner Murali Kartik, who returned respectable figures of 47 for 1 wickets off his ten overs, could create an impression.
After the early loss of opener Dinesh Mongia, who was snapped up in the slips by VVS Laxman off Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar was sent in at number three.
SS Das, the other opener, played a sedate knock of 35 before he was beaten for pace by L Balaji for 35.
Thereafter, Agarkar and Dravid took over and saw India 'B' reach the 200-run mark in the 34th over.
After the departure of Agarkar (57 off 74 balls), Yuvraj Singh and Dravid stitched a brisk 54-run partnership as India Seniors' skipper Sourav Ganguly ran out of ideas to stop the run-spree.
Vijay Bhardwaj played a cameo innings of 41, off just 29 balls, as India 'B' crossed the 300-run mark.
Balaji, who bowled brilliantly on Wednesday, was smashed all over the park by Dravid and finished with expensive figures of 76 for 2 from his ten overs.
India Seniors had to win the match to remain in contention for a place in Sunday's final. But they were never in the running. Ambati Rayudu was quickly back in the pavilion after trying an extravagant drive through the covers and only succeeding in edging an Agarkar delivery straight to Das in the slips.
Parthiv Patel played a few good strokes in his 30 off 29 deliveries, but departed trying one shot too many, which left the seniors reduced to 49 for 2.
For the seniors to have a chance of even putting up a semblance of a fight, Ganguly needed to click. The India Seniors skipper looked in good touch as he scored 25 off as many deliveries but was stumped by Thilak Naidu off Sarandeep Singh.
Laxman was bowled by Bahutule after scoring 18 and for a while it looked as if even 200 might be difficult to achieve.
But Bangar (63 off 66 deliveries) and Badani (61 off 54) combined well once again to give the score a semblance of respectability.
Scoreboard
India 'B':
SS Das b L Balaji 33
D Mongia c VVS Laxman b Z Khan 4
A Agarkar c L Balaji b M Kartik 57
R Dravid b L Balaji 107
Yuvraj Singh b A Rayudu 32
V Bharadwaj not out 41
JP Yadav not out 16
Extras: (lb: 19, nb: 9, w:19) 47
Total: (for 5 wkts in 50 overs) 337
Did not bat: T Naidu, S Bahutule, Sarandeep Singh, A Bhandari.
Fall of wickets: 1-32, 2-65, 3-201, 4-255, 5-281.
Bowling: Zaheer Khan 5.1-0-26-1, L Balaji 10-0-77-2, S Bangar 7.5-0-43-0, RS Sodhi 5-0-31-0, M Kartik 10-0-47-1, S Ganguly 2-0-15-0, A Mishra 7-0-51-0, A Rayudu 3-0-29-1.
India Seniors:
A Rayudu c Das b Agarkar 4
P Patel c Yuvraj Singh b Bhandari 30
R S Sodhi c Sarandeep Singh b Yadav 51
S Ganguly st Naidu b Sarandeep Singh 25
VVS Laxman b Bahutule 18
H Badani not out 61
S Bangar st Naidu b Mongia 63
A Mishra c & b Mongia 0
M Kartik not out 1
Extras: (lb: 10, w: 7, nb: 5) 22
Total: (for 7 wickets in 50 overs) 275
Did not bat: Zaheer Khan, L Balaji.
Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-49, 3-119, 4-127, 5-150, 6-263, 7-272.
Bowling: Agarkar 8-1-34-1; Bhandari 9-0-55-1; Yadav 10-0-47-1; Sarandeep Singh 7-0-46-1; Bahutule 10-0-50-1; Mongia 6-0-33-2.
