17th October, 2021, Hajipur.
Chandan-XI (Muzaffarpur) Anna Swai 40*, Mirtunjay 2/27) in 15 overs beat Navin-XI Dabhaich (Patepur) 99/8 in 16 overs (Mirtunjay 31, Kishlay Kumar 2/17, Golu Ram 2/19) by 5 wickets.
Keeping in mind the fact that it was a final, Navin-XI Dabhaich decided to bat first, post a total and then put some pressure on the chasing side. Captain Jyoti alongwith Navin came out to start the proceedings for Navin-XI Dabhaich. Navin got dismissed early in the innings off to a good ball by Kishlay Kumar. The Chandan-XI bowlers kept the momentum going in their favour as they didn't allowed the opposition batsmen to settle down. The two batsmen were able to add 20 runs, but they took too many deliveries for their respective scores, Jyoti played 21 while Muslim played 23 deliveries for 17 and 10 runs respectively. Later, Mirtunjay's 31 run innings did help the score to reach close to 100 runs mark. But it was a perfect show from the bowlers of Chandan-XI, Kishlay Kumar, Golu Ram, Pappu Kumar and Vivek Rana enjoyed the fest and earned two wickets each to their name. In the end, Navin-XI Dabhaich gave the target of 100 runs for Chandan-XI.
As the chase began, Chandan-XI also didn't get a great beginning. Mirtunjay, Navin and Sonu Baba gave them early blows as Chandan-XI lost their first three wickets inside the powerplay. Then Anna Swai and Hemant Polard reconstructed the chase and put Chandan-XI into a decent position by the end of 13 overs. They now needed 27 runs from 18 deliveries to win the DS Trophy. Sunny came in to support Anna Swai who changed his gear, and at the last ball of penultimate over, Sunny finished off in style with a six to long-off. Chandan-XI scored 29 runs in the last two overs of the contest and were crowned as champions of DS Trophy 2021. Thanks to those valuable 40 runs from the bat of Anna Swai, who understood the worth of his wicket and took his side to a famous victory.
Let's throw some light on statistics of the season. Gaurav Maxwell remained the top run getter of the season with 90 runs in four innings having average of 22.5 followed by Sanjeet who also smashed 85 runs in three innings with better strike rate of 123 in comparison to that of 118 for Maxwell. Kishlay Kumar bowled brilliantly throughout the tournament as he scalped 10 wickets in four innings, he was followed by Mirtunjay who bagged nine wickets with an excellent average of 7.22 to go with an outstanding economy of 6.09.
So, that is it from our side, hope we get to see some more thrilling contests in the next season as well, till then goodbye and cheers!
