Raja Rajeshwari Engineering College 76/10 in 15.5 overs (Rahul 34, Zaheed 17, Minal 2/7) lost to RRMCH B 77/1 in 9 overs (Minal 52, Vignesh 14, Sathyam 1/4 ) by 9 wickets
What do you do when you have three of your batsmen among top five run-scorers of the tournament in a final where the pitch is great to bat on? You bat first, and that’s what skipper Pramod did after winning the toss at the RRMCH ground on the morning of one of the most anticipated final. The Chairmans trophy entered its final day with a lot of celebration and excitement around.
The tournament consisted of 9 teams split across two pools where Pool A had four teams while Pool B had five. The hosts entered the tournament with two teams and both of them topped the table in their respective Pools. Although their A team were knocked out of the semifinal by RREC, their B team entered the finals undefeated and were one of the favorites to win the tournament.
Rahul and Vishnu, the two RREC openers walked out to open the inning for one final time in the tournament. Rahul along with number three Zaheed formed a wonderful partnership after Praveen trapped Vishnu early in the inning. The slow yet steady partnership between Zaheed and Rahul yielded 25 runs at almost run a ball. The RREC were on the way to finish the powerplays on a high but the last ball of the fifth over bought in a disaster. Zaheed was caught short of his crease after a terrible call. This is where the nightmare began for the batting heavy RREC.
While Rahul kept ticking the scoreboard from one end, the flood of wickets arrived at the other end. Adil looked good for his five but could not carry on. Sathyam and the skipper Pramod departed without troubling the scorers and Kishan could not last long either. In no time, RREC were reduced to 55 for 6 from 35 for 1. The tailenders could hardly resist the storm and the team with best batting lineup was bowled out for 76, their lowest total of the tournament.
RREC’s first-inning effort was the sixth-lowest total of the tournament and after the conclusion of the first inning, a big chunk of people present on the ground knew who’s going to lift the trophy. It was just a matter of time. The RRMCH B openers were in a different mood. While Vignesh indicated no urgency, Minal (52 off 23) initiated the slaughtering from ball one. The opening pair had 53 runs off from the target within the first 8 overs. Sathyam bamboozled Vignesh with a beauty but that was not enough as Minal kept slaughtering a hopeless RREC bowling lineup and finished the game by the end of ninth over.
