Jadeja obliges with ton

BHILWARA, March 22: Sporting a bright red cap impishly tilted to the right, Ajay Jadeja lend just the right dash of colour to what turned ou...

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BHILWARA, March 22: Sporting a bright red cap impishly tilted to the right, Ajay Jadeja lend just the right dash of colour to what turned out to be a huge desert festival at the Sukhadia Stadium today. The odd wave and a few mischievous gestures apart, the "India star" completed a memorable Sunday for 10,000 ecstatic fans here with a stylish 109 (93b, 9×4, 3×6).

Besides, there were no visible spill-overs from last month’s knee operation as Jadeja played the lead role in Board President’s XI’s passage into the final of the Wills Trophy Championships. With Pankaj Dharmani (79) and Vikram Rathore (66) pooling in to the Board XI total of 339, even an unbeaten 101 from Vanka Pratap could not prevent Wills XI from falling short by 51 runs.

However, to their credit, Wills XI, tried to hit their way out of the corner with a blazing opening effort from left-handers Daniel Manohar and Nikhil Haldipur. Fifty three for no loss in the fifth over suggested a cracker of a finish, but 144 for five by the 20th overdidn’t.

SCOREBOARD

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Board President’s XI: Vikram Rathore c Ananthapadmanabhan b Manohar 66, Sandeep Sharma lbw V Prasad 35, Gagan Khoda c V Prasad b Manohar 27, Ajay Jadeja c&b Madhukar 109, Pankaj Dharmani not out 79, Jacob Martin not out 4; Extras: (lb7, nb2, w10) 19. Total: (for four wkts, in 50 overs) 339

Fall of wickets: 1-67, 2-129, 3-146, 4-332

Bowling: Prasad 10-0-54-1, Madhukar 10-0-67-1, Ananthapadmanabhan 8-0-65-0, Gavaskar 5-0-31-0, Manohar 10-0-65-2, Vanka Pratap 7-0-50-0

Wills XI: Nikhil Haldipur c Martin b Hussain 15, Daniel Manohar c Dharmani b Sandeep Sharma 30, Devang Gandhi b Hussain 20, Rohan Gavaskar c Yadav b Hussain 23, Vanka Pratap not out 101, Rajiv Kumar st Karim b Karthik 17, MSK Prasad c&b Martin 5, Rajesh Naik b Martin 0, KN Ananthapadmanabhan run out 1, Venkatesh Prasad c Hussain b Karthik 20, Madhukar st Karim b Yadav 8; Extras: (b1, lb2, nb1, w24) 28. Total: (all out, in 48.3 overs) 288

Fall of wickets:1-53, 2-64, 3-87, 4-107, 5-144, 6-155, 7-155, 8-209, 9-271

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Bowling: Sandeep Sharma 4-0-47-1, Hussain 10-0-64-3, Sodhi 7-0-45-0, Karthik 10-0-52-2, Martin 10-0-42-2, Yadav 7.3-0-35-1