Elite C lift Duleep Trophy

Elite ‘C’ clinched the Duleep Trophy by virtue of their 104-run first innings lead against Plate ‘B’ after their match h...

Elite ‘C’ clinched the Duleep Trophy by virtue of their 104-run first innings lead against Plate ‘B’ after their match had ended in a tame draw at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here today.

Resuming at their overnight score of 309 for 9, Plate ‘B’ batted for 13 more minutes this morning before being all out for 322. Vijay Bharadwaj, who waged a lone battle to remain overnight unbeaten on 94, duly completed his century with a huge six off medium pacer Siddarth Trivedi in the very first over of the morning.

However, Trivedi had the

last laugh when he had the batsmen edging to wicketkeeper Pankaj Dharmani after adding five more runs. Bharadwaj’s knock of 105 had consisted of 10 hits to the fence and a six and had come from 251 deliveries. Plate ‘B’ innings ended at 322 conceding a first innings lead of 104 runs.

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With the match becoming a mere formality after the first innings lead was decided, elite ‘C’ in their second essay scored 167 for 7 before declaring the innings in the sixth mandatory over and the match was called off.

Kiran Pawar batted fluently for elite ‘C’ in their second venture and scored 50 consisting of seven boundaries while Jyoti Yadav contributed 23, Dharmani (23) and Hemang Badani (23). Leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani was the pick of plate ‘B’ bowlers claiming 4 for 49 while left-arm spinner Sreekumar Nair took 2 for 43.

Elite ‘C’ had accumulated a tally of 21 points from as many matches in the five-team league while Plate ‘B’ who finished as runner-up garnered 19 points from four matches.

Brief scores: Elite C: 426; Plate B: 322 and 167 for 7 decl