Bengaluru: After a six-year hiatus, South Zone skippered by Satish Vishwanathan, clinched the JK Bose Cricket tournament at the 39th SJFI convention in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
In the four-team event played at various venues across the Smart City, South Zone registered three convincing wins to take home the title. Earlier, Sports Writers Association of Bangalore’s paddlers Shashank Kishore and Roshan Thyagarajan, claimed the men’s doubles table tennis crown for the AC Bali Trophy.
R. Satya, Roshan and Abhishek Baadkar won the basketball free throws event while the troika of Krishna, Vijeth and Shashank finished runners-up in the spot kicks.
In a rain-curtailed opening encounter against the hosts East Zone, South rode on Abhishek Baadkar’s match-saving 34 (30b, 4x4) to win by a narrow margin of seven runs via D/L method.
South posted a challenging 101/7 in the stipulated 15 overs. Later, East were 67/4 in 13.2 overs when rain played spoilsport at the KIIT Stadium.
At the IDCO Recreation Club ground, South’s Sri Krishna AS, making his debut, set the tournament alight with a swashbuckling century against North Zone.
Interestingly, it was the first ton in the tournament's history since it was converted to the T20 format.
Standing 6’6", Krishna hammered 102 and Roshan scored 34 as South posted a huge 176 in 15 overs. In reply, North succumbed to 40/7 to go down by a huge margin of 136 runs.
At the same venue, South riding on their winning run, sealed the title with a seven-wicket triumph against the defending champions West Zone.
Results: Cricket: South Zone 101/6 in 15 overs (Sri Krishna AS 21, Abhishek Baadkar 34; Fazal Ali 2-25) bt East Zone 67/4 in 11.3 overs (Mohd. Abdul Aziz 22, Alapan Saha 22) by 7 runs via D/L method. Man of the match: Abhishek Baadkar.
South Zone 177/5 in 15 overs (Sri Krishna 102, Roshan Thyagarajan 34; Dharmendra Pant 2-16, Jaswinder Sidhu 2-41) beat North Zone 40/7 in 15 overs (Rajesh Rai 13 n.o; Shashank Kishore 2-12) by 137 runs. Man of the match: Sri Krishna
West Zone 23/7 in 5 overs (R Satya 3-5, Akash Sarkar 2-3) lost to South Zone 26/3 in 3.2 overs (Sri Krishna 20 n.o) by 7 wickets. Man of the match: R Satya
Player of the tournament: Sri Krishna AS.
Table tennis: Winners (Open doubles) (Shashank, Roshan)
Free throws: Winners (Roshan, Satya, Abhishek)
Penalty kicks: Runners-up (Sri Krishna, Vijeth and Shashank)
Quiz: Winners (Satish, Satya, Akash); Third place: (Roshan, Shashank, Kritika).
