Swami Shradhanand College win DU Inter College Tournament 2015-16; beats Aryabhatta College to claim Hat-trick of titles
Grand Finale. Age Old Rivalry. High Stakes. High quality players. One team looking to create history. The other looking to prevent it from becoming a reality. When it’s a final match of Delhi University Cricket Tournament, it doesn’t get bigger than this. But It was Swami Shradhanand College yet again who showed their big match temperament and got the better of their old rivals Aryabhatta College in the same tournament for the third year in a row, thus beating them comfortably by 103 runs and clinching a hat-trick of University titles.
The match was played at NSIT Ground, Dwarka. Unlike last year, this time it was a perfect batting track and there were no demons in the pitch. Swami Shradhanand College won the toss and expectedly opted to bat first.
Openers Shubham Dahiya (21) and Jitesh Saroha (27) gave a decent start to the innings adding 31 runs for the first wicket at run a ball. But it was No. 3 batsman Lakshay Thareja (90) who batted as per the plan and held one end together till the end. All the batsmen batted around him and kept the run rate on the higher side. He sweated it out in the middle hitting just 5 boundaries in his 121 ball knock. But it was due to his secured presence at the crease that Rohan Rathee (46), Deepak Khatri (61) and Lalit Yadav (27) were able to accelerate and push the team total to beyond 300. Unfortunately he was run out and missed out on a much deserved century.
If there was one thing that hurt Aryabhatta College the most, it was their fielding. It was a below par display with catches being dropped, singled being converted to doubles and easy boundaries being conceded. All the bowlers went for plenty as the scoreboard suggests. Yogesh Kumar and Karan Dagar managed a couple of wickets each.
To chase down 301 against the mighty bowling attack of Swami Shradhanand College required some effort but all the hopes of making it even a close contest were dashed in first ten overs itself with fast bowlers Abhishek Vats and Himanshu Sangwan sending top 3 batsmen back in the hut, thus choking the innings at the very beginning. Both were fast and dead accurate.
Middle order batsmen Dinesh Mor (33), Akshay Solanki (60) and Shivang Vashishth (52) tried their best but accurate bowling and field placements meant they were not able to cut loose and required run rate kept on increasing. After they got out, the lower order was wrapped rather quickly as the innings folded for 198 runs in 47 overs, hence falling 103 runs short of the target and DU Inter College title.
This victory added another feather in the cap for Swami Shradhanand College coach, Mohit Rana as his team has been performing exceptionally well in all the tournaments they participate in. For Mr. Kohli, the dream of winning the title is delayed atleast by a year who has been marshalling Aryabhatta College for past 15 years and the team has reached the finals for past 10 years on the trot, but have never won.
Brief Scores:
Swami Shradhanand College: 301/7 in 50 overs (Lakshay Thareja 90, Deepak Khatri 61, Rohan Rathee 46, Karan Dagar 2/15, Yogesh Kumar 2/53)
Aryabhatta College: 198 all out in 47 overs (Akshay Solanki 60, Shivang Vashishth 52, Himanshu Sangwan 3/38, Manish 2/45)
Keep following the page for scorecards, photos and numbers game of the tournament. University Trials to follow soon.
Coverage by:
Sumanyu Jain (Editor @CricketGraph)