Rajiv Gandhi Cricket Academy 171/10 in 39.2 overs (Bhuwan 59, Manay 38, Aditya 4/30) lost to Prime Sports Club 175/9 in 40 overs (Siddharth 37, Kanishk 35, Hitesh 2/24) by 2 wickets
The late Saroj Devi memorial U-14 cricket league 2019 concluded with a thrilling finish at the Lakshya Cricket Academy. The Rajiv Gandhi Cricket academy won the toss and elected to bat first against the Prime Sports Club. Vijay Sharma removed Amit early but a partnership between Bhuwan (59) and Manay (38) ensured that there won’t be any further damage.
Just when things looked like going into the way of RGCA, Kanishk came in and removed Manay. Harshit departed early which exposed the untested middle order and a collapse followed. Aditya Tak (4 for 30) rattled the middle order with some brutal bowling performance. The RGCA were bundled out for 171 after being 126 for 2 in the twenty seventh over.
With four of their bowlers in top 10, the RGCA had all the reasons to believe that they would defend the target, but the history of the tournament suggested otherwise. They failed to defend anything below 200 throughout the tournament. Their opposition had a couple of batsmen in the top ten charts and they held the record for most runs in an inning at the tournament (They gunned down 356 in the league phase against BFA).
How many times we see the youngsters throwing their wickets away after getting a decent start? The sight is pretty common in the age group tournaments and we witnessed it throughout the summer here at the cricheros. The PSC inning followed similar patterns in the second inning as most of their batsmen got starts but failed to convert them into a big one. Despite a couple of decent innings from Gopal (24) and Siddhartha (37), PSC found themselves in a desperate situation.
The PSC were bogged down at 129 for 8 in 34 overs and at this point, the RGCA must have thought that they have the game but Kanishk had other ideas. After adding 26 with the number 8 Harshit, he took the charge all alone and sailed the PSC over the line with some amazing individual magic. His 35 runs came off just 20 balls and he pulled the trophy out of RGCA’s throat.
