A memorable start for Dahiya

Dahiya was in such good nick that Kaushik was left with little to do in their stand of 169 runs for the first wicket. “Rahul was hitting the ball really well,I just made sure I rotated the strike and I was confident he will do the rest,” Kaushik,who scored a half century said.

Dahiya’s half century came in just 57 balls and included eight hits to the fence. Not only did he give the team a strong start,he was quick to change his strategy as the day progressed and with the increased heat,the wicket started slowing down. “The wicket was quite good for the first hour but after that it started slowing down a bit,and I had to vary my shots accordingly,” Dahiya,who was adjudged the man of the match,said.

“My coach had told me to play straight and avoid rash strokes,and I kept that advice in mind,” he said.

There were a couple of nervous moments in the nineties for Dahiya when he tried to hit out against spinners but he eventually regained his composure to score his season’s first ton.

When NSCC came on to bat,they were untroubled for more than half their innings,having scored 150 runs at the loss of only one wicket in 28 overs but they lost seven wickets after that and fell 13 runs short of the target in 40 overs. It was spinner Pawan Chauhan who’s spell of three wickets for 20 runs helped SB Youth close the game but he too conceded that it was Dahiya who made the difference.

Brief scores: SB Youth CC 233 for 7 in 40 overs: (R Dahiya 109,A Kaushik 50; J Yadav 3/59) NSCC 220 for 8 in 40 overs (J Yadav 89,A Varma 29: P Chauhan 3/20)