| Ground: | M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore |
| Scorecard: | Air India Red v Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited |
| Player: | Joginder Singh, DK Devanand, AS Das |
| Event: | Sahara BCCI Corporate Trophy 2009/10 |
DateLine: 1st September 2009
The first match of the Sahara BCCI Corporate Trophy 2009/10 was washed out due to incessant rain. Air India Red had earlier won the toss and elected to field. BSNL notched up a competitive score of 258 for the loss of seven wickets. Air India Red in reply scored 16 for the loss of one wicket in 2.5 overs before rain brought a premature end to a contest that was taking an interesting turn.
Put into bat openers Das and Mohapatra put on 70 for the first wicket with the latter being the aggressor off the two. Mohapatra took some time to get-in and once he picked up the pace and bounce of the pitch he looked in complete control off the proceedings. He was particularly harsh on the left-arm spinner Ankeet Chavan, whose first two overs went for 25.
Once Mohapatra got out, Das found an able partner in Varun Kumar. Yuvraj brought on his spinners to try and slow down proceedings. The next 11 overs produced just 35 runs, but then Varun cut loose. Chavan, again, was at the receiving end, going for 11 in his third over. Das, too, picked up the pace as the two kept turning over the strike with ease. Varun was run-out, but the two had added 90 runs to set a perfect platform for the launch. Das got out in the first over off the batting Powerplay and it looked that the innings would be derailed.
Joginder, though, made sure that the Powerplay was made to count, hitting three sixes in his 24-ball 27, and helping BSNL take 42 in the Powerplay. Saurabh Netravalkar and Mun Mangela, kept taking regular wickets in the final few overs, as BSNL had to be satisfied with a score of 258 in their fifty overs.
