Hail the hero! Baby hoisted by joyous teammates after his match-winning knock.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN
Sachin Baby writes his own script these days.
He chose the big occasion of a final to carve out a splendid century (105 not out, 54b, 8×4, 7×6) and power Aries Kollam Sailors to the title in the inaugural edition of the KCL at the Greenfield stadium here on Wednesday.
A target of 214 was surpassed with little alarm as the Sailors captain Baby made mockery of the field placings and manipulated the bowling to steer his team to a six-wicket win over Calicut Globstars. It was fitting that he scored the winning runs by smashing Akhil Dev for a boundary.
Baby’s 114-run third wicket stand, off 61 balls, with Vatsal Govind (45) swung the tide in favour of Sailors. Vatsal showed sparks of aggression and attacked the Globstars spinners in the company of Baby.
Openers Abhishek Nair and Arun Polouse fell early but Baby stood tall and showed remarkable composure under pressure.
Earlier, captain Rohan Kunnummal started like a runaway train, hoisting and whipping Pavan Raj for boundaries in the first over to take the fight to the enemy camp. Leg-spinner Midhun commanded respect and he trapped Omar Abubacker to give Sailors an early lift. However, Akhil Scaria played his strokes with finesse on the hard pitch as the PowerPlay yielded 50 runs for Globstars.
Kunnammal attacked Sharafuddeen, lifting him for two sixes in his first over and completed his fifty with another six off Biju Narayanan. But Midhun snared Kunnammal who mistimed a shot to Pavan Raj. Akhil and M. Ajinas maintained the run-rate by scoring boundaries whenever the bowlers erred. Akhil spoiled Midhun’s figures after carting him for two sixes and four.
Ajinas ran amok after Scaria’s dismissal, striking medium pacer N.P. Basil for three sixes and a four to race to his fifty. However, the scoring rate dropped after Ajinas’ dismissal as Sailors conceded only 23 runs in the last three overs.
The scores: Calicut Globstars 213/6 in 20 overs (M. Ajinas 56, Rohan Kunnummal 51, Akhil Scaria 50, A.G. Amal 2/18, S. Midhun 2/42) lost to Aries Kollam Sailors 214/4 in 19.1 overs (Sachin Baby 105 n.o, Vatsal Govind 45, Akhil Dev 2/44).
Published – September 19, 2024 12:25 am IST
