Jhujhar Bhojusar 155/4 in 20 overs (Radhey 62, Jayram 60, Raju 2/27) lost to SMCC (Megashar) 158/5 in 16.3 overs (Raju 53, Vishnu 41, Radhey Ananad 2/35) by 5 wickets
The fourth season of Gurjar Gaud Premier League concluded with a great game of cricket at the Sadul Club Ground, Bikaner. 27 teams participated in the tournament and in the end, it was Jhujhar Bhojusar and SMCC made it through to the top. The teams remained consistent throughout the tournament and they made the tournament memorable not just for themselves, but the followers too.
The final got on the way with coin landing in JBs favor. They elected to bat first and piled on a solid 155 in the first inning. After losing Jaykrishan early, they found two solid batsman in the form of Radhey and Jayram. The pair batted through most of the JBs inning and they added 137 off 99 balls. Both the batsmen went on to score the fifties but they failed to accelerate their innings the way they would have liked to.
Radhey faced 53 balls for his 62 while Jayram faced 50 for his 60. The pair scored 14 fours and 3 sixes between them (with all three sixes coming from Jayram's bat). The middle-order got to face only 18 balls in the inning and it's fair to say that they underachieved. None of the batsmen among Akshay and Bharat could get the big hits in for their team. Raju finished with 2 for 27 in his 4 overs.
SMCC got off to a flying start in the second inning. The opening pair added 51 in just 4.3 overs. The partnership was highly dominated by Vishnu who got 41 off those 51 runs. He wasted just 19 balls for that. On the other hand, Pawan was enjoying the sight of Vishnu smashing the bowlers all around.
Pawan Upadhyay entered the scenes in the seventh over and he got rid of Ravinder and Pawan in the space of three balls. By this time, SMCC's brilliant start was turned into a bit shaky one as they lost three wickets for just 6 runs. A 27 run partnership between Pramod (16) and Vasu (21*) stabilized them once again but that was not enough for them to reach the target.
The skipper who had a great day out with the ball took over the responsibilities once again. Maybe he exchanged his bat (or maybe spirit?) with Vishnu in the dressing room. He went for the bowlers from ball one and tilted the game in the favor of his team in a jiffy. He added 69 off just 34 balls. Just like Vishnu, he got 53 out of those 69 runs. What's remarkable here is that he kept the strike for the most part of his inning and that can be judged by the fact that wicketkeeper-batsman Vasu who arrived a couple of steps ahead of him, faced only 20 balls.
SMCC gunned down the target with 21 balls still in the tank. Raju bagged the man of the match award for his magnificent performance, both with the bat and the ball.
