It was billed as the battle of unequals — the Air India Red team brimming with India players against BSNL, a rag-tag bunch of rookies. But the underdogs managed to get themselves a pat on the back within the 52.5 overs of play possible on the day before sharp showers rushed the thick plastic sheets on the square.

The opening game of the BCCI’s Corporate trophy at the Chinnaswamy Stadium was abandoned with Air India Red positioned at 16/1 in 2.5 overs against BSNL’s tally of 258/7.

The chase looked enterprising after Joginder sent back Naman Ohja first ball — the delivery landed on the seam and deviated to grab the outside edge. After four days at the Team India camp handling short deliveries, Suresh Raina almost fell for it yet again as Air India Red set about the chase, lucky that his pull shot off NS Negi brushed past the outstretched hands of Joginder Singh at square-leg and raced to the boundary.

Earlier, put in to bat first, BSNL openers got off to a quiet start, managing just 10 runs in the first five overs. However, once Biswa Mahapatra and Arindam Das saw the shine off the new ball, they took to some sterling hits and put together a partnership of 71 runs in 13.1 overs. Mahapatra scored a run-a-ball 41 while Das reached his half-century in 74 balls with six fours.

Varun Kumar and Das then toyed with the Air India Red attack, picking singles and boundaries at will; with the exception of left-arm seamer Saurabh Netravalkar who was strangely not fully utilised by skipper Yuvraj Singh desite turning out 2/22 in seven overs, the rest of the Air India Red attack looked below average. Das was dismissed on 82 and that allowed Air India to bounce back. Niranjan Behera and skipper Joginder put together 47 in 39 balls but wickets kept falling and Air India managed to restrict the damage.

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