Chennai, Oct. 3: A solid start by openers Robin Uthappa and Gautham Gambhir put India Red in the driver’s seat as they piled up 317/4 in their second and last round robin match in the Challenger Series cricket tournament here on Tuesday evening.

India Greens need to achieve a win within 40 overs against the Reds, to gain a bonus point and make it to the final in case of a possible three way tie.

India Blues, having won their match on Monday against India Greens, are assured of a berth.

Uthappa and Gambhir paced their innings well. Gambhir was lucky early on as he was let off by wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel in the fourth over off Praveen Kumar with his score on one.

Captain Mohd Kaif used Ashish Nehra and Praveen Kumar during the first set of power play overs and Uthappa and Gambhir scored at 6.2 runs an over between them. The second power play of five overs yielded 19 runs with Laxmipathy Balaji and Sourav Ganguly operating the bowling attack.

Ganguly bowled well and he was the only one among the six used who did not give away any boundary in his first spell of six overs which yielded 26 runs.

Gambhir was more enterprising of the openers. India Red reached 50 in 8.1 overs with Gambhir on 26 and Uthappa on 14. The 100 came in 19 overs with Gambhir 47 and his partner on 41, and the 150-mark was reached in 25 overs.

When spinner Piyush Chawla came on to bowl from the pavilion end, Uthappa lofted him to long-off, mid-wicket and then straight behind the screen for sixes.

India Green finally broke through when Piyush Chawla dismissed Gambhir, caught at mid-wicket by Suresh Raina, after he had made 74 (8x4) off 93 balls. He put on 177 runs, including 164 with Uthappa, for the first wicket.

Dinesh Karthick, replacing Uthappa, then took over, hitting at will. He reached his 50 off only 43 balls with three fours and two sixes, both off Chawla.

Rohit Sharma was the next to go caught by Mithun Minhas off Praveen Kumar for 26 after the second wicket partnership yielded 77 runs in 43 balls.

Then Uthappa, who was in the pavilion for 15 overs, came back with Rohit Sharma as runner, to join Karthick. The two entertained the crowd with their shots. Karthick once guided Balaji behind the wicket-keeper for a six. Both fell in the space of two deliveries off Balaji.