The first match of the N. K. P Salve Challenger Trophy at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack was won by India blue defeating India Red by
49 runs. The India blue team put forward a winning total of 235 for 9 in 50 overs. The Blue team won the toss and decided to bat. Uthappa and Ajinkya opened the game steadily giving each other time to settle and giving a tough time to bowlers L Balaji and Piyush Chawla. The duo stuck together to make 87 in 16.4 Overs. With average performances by Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli and Dinesh Karthik the star was Pathan who came and blasted 43 runs off 44 balls. The fine play of the bowlers Praveen, Balaji and Parmar was undeniably commendable.

The India Red team got off to a poor start with the wickets crumbling down very soon. The 89 runs off 107 balls was by far the best performance by Vijay. The runs came fast with Yuvraj failing to restrain the batsman. With not so good cricket the Red team started to go down, the required run rate started increasing and reds were at one point 138 for seven in 37.3 overs. Although for a short period Vinay Kumar did raise hopes but parted soon adding 17 runs off 20 balls to the total. Followed by shallow performances by Murali and Badrinath, the India Red lost the match by 49 runs.