Shradhanand college defend title at DU Inter College Cricket Tournament 2015 courtesy a 5 wicket haul by Abhishek Vats
Rarely one would see this level of reoccurrence in a cricket match in consecutive years and that too in the final of the same tournament and between the same two teams.What’s more! The same bowler picking up a five wicket haul and single handedly ensuring his team’s title victory. It was literally a repeat of 2014 finals.
Riding on second consecutive five-for from Abhishek Vats, separated by a year and two finals, Swami Shradhanand College successfully defended their DU Inter College title against Aryabhatta College. He was my man of the match for his superb bowling display. He created havoc in the early part of Aryabhatta’s innings, from which they were unable to come out till the very end.
The venue was NSIT, Dwarka. This ground was quite big when compared with other DU venues. As it rained the previous night, the weather turned windy, making the toss all the more important. The pitch had lot to offer in the morning. Shradhanand were lucky this time and expectedly, opted to field first. Both teams matched each other man by man so it was really difficult to predict a winner before the toss.
It was on Aryabhatta’s batsmen to see out the initial overs and build their innings. Exactly the opposite happened. The fiery opening spells from Shradhanand new ball bowlers Abhishek Vats and Raunaq Dabas had half the batting back in the hut when the scoreboard read 32. Aryabhatta camp was down and out when Shivank (38 runs, 56 balls, 1×4, 1×6) with supporting hands from Manish (10 runs, 40 balls) and PulkitNarang (26 runs, 36 balls, 2×4) bailed them out by dealing in singles and doubles. Aryabhatta’sinnings ended for 117 runs in the 35th over. Abhishek Vats took a five wicket haul, while Raunaq and Aakarshit Gomez shared a couple of wickets each.
The writing was very much on the wall after the first innings. But Aryabhatta boys were a tough nut to crack and Shradhanand were very well aware of this fact. Throughout the tournament they have been really difficult to get away. They blew away SGGSCC for 63 in the semi-finals. They did have the confidence to at least make a match out of their low score and avenge the defeat of 2014. And the way they bowled, it was of no surprise to anyone that despite their low total, the match entered the last 5 overs.
Shradhanand batsmen seemed in no hurry to overhaul the target. But Aryabhatta captain bowled an inspired spell, and had Shradhanand on back foot with 5 down for 64 in 18th over. But after that they had loosened the grip as Shamsher Yadav (27 runs) and Deepak Khatri (35 runs, 35 balls, 3×4, 1×6) milked the bowlers and got their team closer to the target. Deepak finished the game in style with a six over mid-wicket of the bowling of Shivank. Pulkit, Rajesh and Yogesh shared 2 wickets each.
Aryabhatta’s Journey:
Group Stage: Defeated SSCBS, Zakhir Hussain, SGTB Khalsa
Semifinal: Defeated SGGSCC
Shradhanand’s Journey:
Group Stage: Defeated SGGSCC, Venkateswara, Ambedkar
Semifinal: Defeated SGTB Khalsa
Brief Scores:
Aryabhatta: 117 all out in 34.1 overs (Shivank 38, Pulkit 26, Vats 5/32)
Shradhanand: 119/6 in 30.2 overs (Deepak 35, Shamsher 27, Yogesh 2/26, Pulkit 2/28)
Report By: Sumanyu Jain
(Regional Manager & Editor) @ www,cricketgraph.com
