STATE TIMES NEWS
KATHUA: Star-studded Stadium Eleven Kathua trounced formidable Young Star Eleven Kathua in a close contest by 21 runs to lift the State Cricket Academy T20 Cricket Championship at Cricket Stadium, here on Wednesday.
In the summit clash, Stadium Eleven Kathua won the toss and elected to bat first and scored 159 runs for the loss of five wickets in 20 overs. Arvind was the top scorer with 31 runs while Prashant contributed 27 runs to the total.
For Young Star Eleven, Monty claimed two wickets while Sanjay and Ankush shared apiece each.
In reply, Young Stars Eleven failed to chase the target and managed to score 138 runs for the loss of seven wickets in allotted 20 overs. Rohit played a fine inning of 39 runs in the initial overs of the game and well supported by Shivam Sharma with 34 runs but after the depart of both batsmen the situation favoured fielding side.
For Stadium Eleven, Arvind was the wrecker-in-chief, who grabbed four important wickets while Tajinder and Rompy shared one each. For his best performance in the match as well as whole tournament, Arvind received Man of the Match, Best Bowler and Man of the Series awards. Shivam Sharma was declared best batsman while Nehal Khajuria was declared as emerging player of the tournament. Today’s match was officiated by Mohan Lal, Tarsem Sharma, Kulbhushan Singh and Naresh Kumar.
In the closing ceremony, Ranjeet Kalra, Vice Chairman Sports Council Jammu was the Chief Guest while Pawan Kumar Sharma, Zonal Officer YSS Manpur was the Guest of Honour who gave away trophies and cash prizes of Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 30,000 to winner and runner-up teams respectively.
They also gave away Rs. 5,000 to Man of the Series, Rs. 2,000 each to best all-rounder, best bowler, best batsman and youngest and emerging player.
Speaking on the occasion, Ranjeet Kalra applauded the initiative of the JKSCC under the patronage of its President, Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Minister for conducting cricket events throughout the State with the objective to nurture talent among youths. He also announced that a special coaching camp shall be organised in future for the youth of the Kathua and best players will be selected for further tournaments. Earlier Rajesh Gill, Member Sports Council Jammu, former Ranji player and Chief Coordinator of the event presented a detailed report about the ten-day long tournament in which 16 teams of Kathua District took part covering around 256 players.