NEW DELHE: A depleted Khalsa College clinched the Pal Singh Memorial Cricket title when they surprised fancied Matras Club by 20 nuns in a close final at the Khalsa College ground here on Thursday,
Khalsa College, who missed the services of three of their regular players owing to examinations, made a moderate 167 for nine in the stipulated 40 overs, after opting to make first use of the wicket. Madras Club, who had Haryana Ranji opener Dhan Raj. Railways’ Praveen Bhatnagar and Delhi player Ravi Sehgal among theirranks, folded up fora meagre 147 in 37.1 overs.
Medium pacers Sunil Sharma (4 for 24) and Baljeet Singh (3 for26) were the heroes for Khalsa College. While the former broke the back of Madras Club top order (he claimed the first four wickets in the space of 20 deliveries), Balject Singh put an end to their challenge by removing the last three batsmen.
Facing a comparatively easy target, Praveen Bhatnagar and Dhan Raj made a flying start to Madras Club’s reply. Dhan Raj swung left arm medium pacer Rakesh Jolly over square leg fence in the third over and Bhatnagar did a similar act in Sunil Sharma’s next over. But Sunil Sharma had the last laugh, removing both the openers in the space of 1 runs, Bhatnagar flashed ala rising delivery to be caught behind. Dhan Raj drove uppishly to be taken at slips. Kapil Arora played early to be caught at maiden, Madras Club were four down for 47. Ravi Sehgal (31) and Vishal Singh Yadav (32) steadied the innings before they were separated. They were still in with a chance to make a match of it. But Rakesh Bal (25), who defied the Khalsa attack for a while, was dismissed in the 35th over with the team only 34 runs away from victory. Balject Singh then ran through the tail.
Article extracted from this publication >> April 30, 1993
