Johri Kings 122/10 in 19.1 overs (Piyush 33, Nikhil 15, Shubham 2/15) lost to Kota Royals 128/5 in 17.5 overs (Shubhanshu 65, Rahul 29, Nitin 2/20) by 5 wickets
The first season of the Vijaywargiya Delhi Cricket Cup concluded with a spectacular victory of Kota Royals over Johri Kings. After beating the Jaipur Royals, the Kings entered the finals with a lot of confidence. Especially if you look at the way Piyush and Nitin routed the table-toppers in the semifinals, you will know why the expectations skyrocketed for the fans.
The first season of the tournament was played across a league cum knockout format. The final got off the way at Ghevra Cricket Ground on a humid afternoon, at 2:00 PM. Johri Kings won the toss and they elected to bat first and why not, they had the top two run-scorers of the tournament in their XI. Unfortunately things did not go according to plan for them. Most of the batsmen failed to cash upon the starts. Five of their batsmen made it to the double digits but only Piyush could manage to go pas 20.
If you examine the scorecard you will realize that every-time kings tried to build a partnership, Royals found a way to chip in with a wicket. While the highest partnership of the inning was 19, the lowest was 3 which came in via number 10 and number 11. If you consider the partnerships of top as well as middle-order batsmen, they all went on to add above 12 but none could manage anything above 19. Kings failed to utilize their full quota of overs and were bowled out for 122.
The first five over of Royal’s chase was pretty much identical to their opposition. They lost the wickets of Harshit and Shubham early but the pair of Shubhanshu and Rahul bailed them out of trouble with a partnership of 78. The partnership ensured that the Kings won’t have a second chance of a comeback in the game. By the time Vikas had Rahul caught at long on for a well-made 29; the Royals were just 33 steps away from the target.
The fans of Johri Kings probably had some hopes left after the departure of Rahul but those hopes were buried alive by Shubham Vijay who smashed a quickfire 27 off 16 balls with the help of 3 fours and 2 sixes. By the time Kings managed to dismiss Shubhanshu, the game was all but over. Shubham finished the game with a massive six over midwicket. Sudhanshu was adjudged man of the match for his glorious inning of 65 off just 47 balls.
