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, here 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.
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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)