Chennai, Oct. 2: India Blues thrashed India Greens by a whopping margin of 266 runs in their second round robin-match of the three-team Challenger cricket tournament for the NKP Salve trophy here on Tuesday.

Chasing India Blues 382, the Greens could only muster 115. After Sachin Tendulkar took centrestage for the Blues with a whirlwind 139, Harbhajan Singh called the shots for them in bowling.

The in-form sardar claimed four wickets conceding only 10 runs. Irfan Pathan and Munaf Patel snapped two each to trigger the collapse of the Greens. Parthiv Patel was the top-scorer for the losers with 43, while the much-awaited ‘big innings’ from the former Indian captain didn’t materialise as he was dismissed for 24.

Apart from Tendulkar and Pathan, Dravid chipped in with 62. Dhoni, in his usual inimitable style, struck an unbeaten 79 and put on 53 runs in just 23 balls with Ajit Agarkar (17) for the unifinished seventh wicket.

Opening the attack for the Greens, Balaji started off with two wides before claiming the wicket of Srivastav. Ashish Nehra was more penetrative.

Ganguly’s bowling was noteworthy, as he was more economical and attacking than the regular bowlers. He almost got the wicket of Tendulkar, who had a genuine snick to a delivery. But the ball landed at least 10 yards before third man Preveen Kumar. Tendulkar departed in a bizarre fashion, getting out to an ordinary delivery from Lahari, going for a swipe and ending up offering a straightforward catch to Kaif at midwicket.

After a 94 run-stand off 91 balls for the third wicket with Tendulkar, Dravid was caught at mid-wicket, pulling too soon at Aashish Nehra.

Dravid made 62 off 63 balls. Yuvraj (19) whose first scoring shot was a mighty six into the stands over the pavilion, was out to a very good catch by Chawla off Praveen Kumar.

Dinesh Mongia lasted two deliveries, falling to Balaji with Kaif bringing up a good catch in the covers.

Dhoni stuck to his crease,though three wickets fell at the other end and remained unbeaten on 79, along with Ajit Agarkar (17).

For India Greens, Balaji claimed 2/68 while Nehra, Praveen Kumar, Chawla and Lahari took a wicket each.

On Sunday, India Blue lost to India Red by 21 runs in the opening match of the Challenger Series.

India Blues were set a target of 281, thanks to a solid score of 110 from Gautam Gambhir and a half-century from Y. Venugopala Rao. Inspired bowling displays from V.R.V. Singh and Murali Kartik sealed the match for India Red.