Duleep Trophy: Avesh Khan Hits Maiden Fifty, Denies India Green Lead

Avesh Khan hogged the limelight with his maiden first class half-century in an incredible rearguard action as India Red and India Green set up the Duleep Trophy title clash against each other after playing out a draw, on Sunday. The day belonged to Khan, who produced a 56-ball 64 in a last-wicket 73-run stand with Sandeep Warrier (5 off 40 balls) to lead the Red team to 441 all out for a slender one-run lead. Replying to Green's total of 440, the Red team had resumed the day's proceedings at a precarious 404 for nine. It was a remarkable batting show as the Reds were reduced to 368 for nine at one stage. Green (0.057) advanced to the final on the basis of a better Net-Run-rate as it was tied on two points with India Blue (0.028) but took second place. India Red took the top spot with six points. Khan, who had hit five sixes on Saturday, added two more to his kitty, dashing Indian Green's hopes of taking lead and three points. He was finally caught by wicket-keeper Akshay Wadkar to give Ankit Rajpoot his third wicket. In the second innings, India Red crawled to 98 for 3 in 54 overs before play was called off. The final will be played from September 4 at the Chinnaswamy stadium here. Brief Scores: India Green: 440 all out in 131.3 overs and 98 for 3 in 54 overs (Dhruv Shorey 44 not out) India Red: 441 all out in 145.3 overs (M Lomror 126, K Nair 90, A Khan 64; D Jadeja 4/135, Ankit Rajpoot 3/71. Points: India Red: 3, India Green: 1.