Chennai, Oct. 4: India Blue and India Red were declared joint winners of the N.K.P. Salve Trophy after rain played spoilsport in the summit clash of the Challenger cricket series here this evening.

India Seniors were 210/4 in 31.2 overs with Virender Sehwag going strong on 90, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni on 6 when play was stopped at 5.12 p.m. after a downpour.

Sehwag blasted 14 boundaries and a six in his knock.

It rained heavily for an hour and then stopped. The umpires made one inspection and preferred to have another one before deciding on the fate of the match.

When it rained heavily for the second time after 15 minutes, the umpires did not conduct any inspection before calling off the match at 7.45 p.m.

V.R.V. Singh was declared man of the series.

Rahul Dravid included Virender Sehwag in the playing eleven dispelling the rumour that he was not fit after an ankle injury he sustained on Sunday.

Sehwag opened the innings with Sachin Tendulkar.

India Red captain Venugopal Rao opted for Subramaniam Badrinath for Delhi’s Gautham Gambhir.

Tendulkar, who had scored 61 and 139 in the earlier two matches, could not open his account as Zaheer Khan dismissed him in the last ball of the first over of the innings, caught brilliantly by Robin Uthappa in the covers. Tendulkar fell to Khan’s trap, hitting out to an away delivery.

Sehwag then added 49 runs for the second wicket with Irfan Pathan (22) before the latter was dismissed off Khan’s bowling.

Sehwag along with Dravid, who survived two chances, systematically destroyed the attack. The pair traded stroke for stroke and boundary for boundary, at times, in a superb display of one-day batting.

Dravid was dropped before he could open the account, by Venugopal Rao off the very first ball from Zaheer Khan and in the very next over, T.P. Singh from short third man missed the stumps narrowly.

Sehwag too had a reprieve when on 39, T.P. Singh, fielding at point, allowed the ball to pop out of his hands off Sreeshanth’s bowling.