University of Madras new South Zone Cricket champions

They hammered defending champions Jain for 34 runs

 It is a rare scene in a cricket final, where both the winners and losers are satisfied with the match result. The final day of the South Zone Inter-University Cricket Tournament at Manipal has created such a scenario as in the final of the tourney, University of Madras won the trophy, beating the defending champions Jain University, Bangalore, for 34 runs at Manipal University Endpoint Ground One in Manipal on Sunday.

With this win, they took a sweet revenge against the Jain, to whom they lost last year’s title between cup and lip. But at the same time, Jain boys would be probably more relaxed, as with the defeat, they will be placed in the weaker pool for the All India Inter-Zonal Inter-Varsity Cricket Tournament for Rohinton Baria Trophy, which will be starting from January 1 onwards at Manipal.

University of Madras showed a good all round performance with patient batting and brilliant fielding, which yielded the result in their favour. After winning the toss, Madras skipper S Avaikkarasan decided to bat first. Openers D Govindaraj and Shivaramakrishnan gave a good start for the Chennai team, but soon Shivaramakrishnan was caught off the ball of C A Karthik at first slip. Southpaw Ganga Sridhar, tried to make a partnership with Govindaraj, but not fructified as the latter caught out of the ball of Prabhakar.

Captain Avaikkarasan made a brilliant 66 runs of 81 balls and was aptly supported by Ganga (32 runs of 61 balls) and R Rohith (38 runs off 41 balls). The batsmen of Madras became the synonyms of patience, as they found it difficult to score runs due to thick grass on the pitch as well as in the outfield. In his half century, Avaikkarasan could hit only four boundaries. The batsmen at no time gave an impression of aiming a big score.

They used singles and doubles to tick the score card and they rotated the strike often. They made 218 for seven in the 50 overs, which was quite good on a track like that. A total of 37 overs of the total 50 overs were bowled by the tweakers of Jain, whereas the opening speedsters got only 13 overs between them.

In reply, Jain found it difficult to find the runs in the track, which they were playing for the first time. In their total of 184, there were only seven boundaries. The fourth wicket fell at 116 in the 31st over and that was when they tried to go for the singles and twos.

With the field well spread out, they had no choice at that stage. The fifth wicket fell at 159 in the 43rd over and they were all out for 184 in the 49th over. Shashindra was the top scorer with 64 from 106 balls with just three fours. A total of 24 runs came from the extras.

Madras captain Avaikkarasan was declared as Man of the Match for his brilliant 66 runs of 81 balls and for scalping one wicket for 36 runs. Jain University all rounder Shashindra won the Man of the Series award.

In the match for the third place, JNTU Hyderabad beat Andhra University, Vishakapatnam by 10 wickets at the MIT ground.

DH News Service                    Brief scores:        At Manipal Endpoint (The Final): Madras University 218 for 7 in 50 overs (Ganga Shridhar 32, Avaikkarasan 66, R Rohit 38. Shashindra 2 for 47, Abdul Mazeed 2 for 22). Jain University, 184 all out in 48.1 overs (Shashindra 64, Samarth P K 28, Liyan Khan 22. Kiran 2 for 18, Vasanth 2 for 35, A K Balachander 2 for 40).            At MIT (Loser’s Final): Andhra University, Vishakapatnam, 101 all out in 25.5 overs (Satyanarayan 29. Ravi Teja 5/25). JNTU 105/0 in 13.5 overs (Srikanth K 48, Rohan Yadav 51).