Vijay Shankar’s all-round abilities came to the fore as India Cements pipped SBM Bangalore by five runs win the all-India YSCA Trophy here.
The Tamil Nadu all-rounder lent stability to India Cements’ innings with a solid and steadily accumulated 80 (5 fours and 2 sixes). He then held his nerve to bowl an outstanding final over where he picked up a wicket and conceded only three runs as SBM, which needed nine to win, fell five short.
Earlier, Sreenath Aravind got SBM off to an ideal start with a wicket off the very first ball of the match after India Cements opted to bat first. K.B. Arun Karthik fell to a probing delivery outside off-stump that caressed the edge of his chasing bat on its way to the keeper.
But SBM could not capitalise as Vijay Shankar and Varun Kumar, coming together for the second wicket, put on 62 runs that saw them negate the early jitters caused by the moving ball. Aravind was the pick of the bowlers accounting for four opposition batsmen, including a well-set and threatening Vijay Shankar, in his second spell.
Chasing 185, SBM was jolted by an early two-wicket burst by P. Amarnath in his third over. He prised out Pavan Deshpande, who was trapped leg before, and K.N. Bharath whose shot ended up in the hands of a diving Shah Rukh Khan at point.
J. Kaushik, bowling in tandem with Amarnath, extended the damage with two wickets as SBM was reduced to 42 for four in 10 overs with any possibility of a recovery seemingly uncertain.
It took a 47-run fifth-wicket partnership between B. Akkil and Anirudh Joshi to resurrect the innings before Kranti Kumar made a challenge out of it with his lusty blows. But the efforts were just not enough to take SBM home.
The scores: India Cements 184 in 29.3 overs (K. Varun Kumar 41, Vijay Shankar 80, S. Aravind four for 22) bt SBM (Bangalore) 179 in 29.4 overs (B. Akhil 37, Kranti Kumar 47).
