As expected, Vidarbha won the Cooch Behar Trophy under-19 cricket tournament at the VCA’s Civil Lines stadium here on Wednesday. On the last day of the four-day final, the home team took a first innings lead of 325 runs against Madhya Pradesh.
Unbeaten overnight on 313, opener and captain Atharva Taide was bowled by Rishabh Chouhan after he added just seven runs.
Madhya Pradesh made 176 for seven in the second innings with Sanket Shrivastava and Yash Dubey scoring half-centuries.
On January 1, Vidarbha gave a new year present to its supporters by winning the Ranji Trophy.
“Sourav Ganguly asked me what we are doing differently. I feel Chandrakant Pandit made the big change to the senior team. He gave the players the confidence and that was the turning point.
“But this under-19 team was outstanding right through the season; it fought a close match against Karnataka. Most of the players who had helped Vidarbha win the under-16 tournament last year progressed to the under-19 this year.
Inspired
“They were also inspired by the senior team’s Ranji Trophy win,” said Vidarbha Cricket Association president Anand Jaiswal.
The VCA will felicitate the team on Thursday.
“We will reward the playing XI members with ₹5 lakh each and the others who played in the season will get ₹3 lakh each.
“The coach will get ₹5 lakh and the support staff members ₹2 lakh each. The groundstaff, about 20 of them, will get ₹10,000 each,” said Jaiswal.
The scores:
Madhya Pradesh 289 and 176 for seven (Sanket Shrivastava 71, Yash Dubey 67, Parth Rekhade three for 48) drew with Vidarbha 614 (Atharva Taide 320, Akshay Kumar 55, Nayan R. Chavan 107, Mohd. Saad Baggad three for 139, Rishabh Chouhan four for 119).
