The Runners Up of Red Bull Cricket India Champion ship – DAV College Jalandhar were welcomed in a very warm and grand manner
Shradhanand College, Delhi beat DAV College, Jalandhar by 8 wickets in the finals of Red Bull Campus Cricket India
On a cool autumn evening, Shradhanand College (Delhi) were crowned the 2015 Red Bull Campus Cricket India Champions. At the Jamia Milia Sports Complex, they beat DAV College (Jalandhar) by 8 wickets and reserved their spot in the World Finals to be contested in Dehradun from October 19.
Red Bull Campus Cricket started in the year 2012 with the aim of finding the best cricketing talents from colleges around the world. This initiative has been started with the aim of funnelling the best grassroots cricketers and preparing them for the bigger stage. The tournament follows the simple format where the local colleges at city, state and national level fight for a crown of national champion. Besides the trophy and bragging right of being called the best campus team in the country, the teams also gets international exposure and a chance to play against other countries at the Red Bull Campus Cricket World Finals.
DAV’S journey:
DAV under this championship qualified the regional championship , after which they cleared the north zone qualifiers in March and managed to be 1 of the 8 teams who reached the finals
Quarter finals:
In the quarters Dav college Jalandhar faced Jain university Bangalore where DAV beat the Jain university by 5 wickets . Vikramjeet (5 wickets) was the man of match.
Semi finals :
In the semis DAV college Jalandhar faced M M college , Pune where Dav beated them by 66 runs , with Dinesh Mehta (4 wickets) becoming man of the match)
Final match:
Laying to their tournament plan of fielding first, Delhi won the toss and had no qualms about inviting Jalandhar to bat. It paid off as they got a wicket in the 2nd over. Then, Mansab Gill (19 runs, 22 balls, 2 fours) and Abhishek Gupta (22 runs, 20 balls, 3 fours) added 26 runs for the 2nd wicket. Then, skipper Hitesh Gemini (2-13) got into the act for his side, bringing in the break-through. Afterwards, man-of-the-match Harshit Kaushik (4-20) ripped through the Jalandhar middle-order,
The most disappointment for DAV was Himanshu Sharma (17 runs, 27 balls), the best batsman in the India Finals with 117 runs, and after his dismissal the charge in the end-overs never came for Jalandhar had lost too many wickets. They finished with small total and it was never going to be enough for Delhi’s batsmen.
Player of the India Finals Jitesh Saroha (22 runs, 30 balls, 3 fours) and Haryana Ranji batsman Himanshu Rana (20 runs, 14 balls, 3 fours) gave them a rousing start, putting on 31 runs for the opening stand. The two were dismissed in quick succession as Delhi were reduced to 47/2 in the 8th over. But Lakshay Theraja (16*, 21 balls) and Rohan Rathi (32*, 21 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes) never gave Jalandhar a sniff, securing the winning runs in 14.2 overs.
Captain speaks:
Himanshu Satyawan (DAV College, Jalandhar): We wanted to play normal cricket and not take any pressure because it is the final. But the start was not good. We had no long partnerships afterwards either, so it hampered our total score. We ended up with only 90-odd runs, but we thought we could defend it if we made a good start with the ball. So, the result depended on whether we could get 2-3 early wickets. But it was not our day, as we had a catch dropped and a missed run-out.
Red Bull Campus Cricket has been a great experience for us. We are young boys and we were a good team in this tournament. We will try to come back next year and win this tournament.
Coach Ankur quoted “the entire team performed really well . Captain Himanshu , Vice Captain Abhishek , Rajat Sharma , Rishab performed really good . The Shradhanand college performed well in the finals and became the champs .
Next year we would amend our mistakes , and become the champions definitely .
Principal Dr B B Sharma , Physical education Head of the department Dr Manu Sood , senior player Robin and Ravinder and Indian spinner Rahul Sharma inspired the team to perform well further in the upcoming championships .
Best Batsman of India Finals: Himanshu Sharma (DAV College, Jalandhar), 111 runs
