FUCC champions

Kunal, Suneel Raju slam centuries

Swift hundreds by Kunal Kapoor and Suneel Raju helped Friends Union Cricket Club defeat Vultures Cricket Club by 129 runs and clinch the YS Ramaswamy memorial tournament at the M Chinnaswamy stadium here on Saturday.

Batting by choice, FUCC amassed a healthy 309 for eight in their stipulated 50 overs, and under the lights Vultures’ chase went horribly wrong and they were bowled out for 180 in 39.1 overs.

The initial sparks of victory was given by Raju and Kunal with aggressive centuries. Raju made 123 in just 119 balls with 11 fours and two sixes, while Kunal made a 106-ball 102 with 12 hits to the fence as the duo shared a mammoth 222-run stand for the third wicket.

They came together at the crease when FUCC was wobbling slightly at 28 for two after five overs, but since that moment they never gave a chance to Vultures bowling that included two India pacers in Abhimanyu Mithun and S Arvind, and a state pacer in Ronit More.

The dismissal of Kunal, castled by left-arm medium pacer Arvind, brought Vultures back into the game momentarily, as they contained the flow of runs with regular wickets from that point. Raju too was bowled by Arvind.

However, they could not carry over that momentum to their innings as Vultures struggled against some spot-on bowling by FUCC. The lone meaningful contribution in their innings was made by KL Rahul (63, 65b, 6x4, 1x6).


Brief scores: FUCC: 309/8 in 50 overs (Suneel Raju 123, Kunal Kapoor 102; A Mithun 3-74, Ronit More 3-58) bt Vultures CC: 180 all out in 39.1 overs (KL Rahul 63; M Vinod 3-47, Pradeep Benjamin 3-32).