Manik-led KCCC lifts Gharota T20 Cup as Shubam slams brilliant fifty

Excelsior Sports Correspondent

Triumphant team of KCCC posing alongwith chief guest, Parvaiz Ahmed Malik, Commissioner Secretary YS Sports at Country Cricket Academy, Gharota in Jammu.
Triumphant team of KCCC posing alongwith chief guest, Parvaiz Ahmed Malik, Commissioner Secretary YS Sports at Country Cricket Academy, Gharota in Jammu.

JAMMU, Apr 27: First-Class cricketer Manik Gupta registered an emphatic victory in his debut match as skipper of the premier Kishan Chand Cricket Club (KCCC) over National Cricket Club (NCC), riding on a superb half-century by India Under-19 cricketer, Shubam Khajuria to lift the 1st Drug Free Youth Gharota T20 Cup Cricket Tournament, organized by Country Cricket Academy at Academy ground, Gharota today.
Commissioner Secretary, Technical Education and Youth Services and Sports, Parvaiz Ahmed Malik was the chief guest on the occasion, while Anjali Sharma, Director Doordarshan Kendra, Jammu and Ashutosh Sharma, president NCC and working committee member JKCA were the guests of honour.
The Tournament was organized by Country Cricket Academy under the supervision of its Director, Vivek Sharma and was sponsored by Project Model School, Janipur, under the supervision of its Principal Vikrant Sharma.
Lavishing praise on the organizers for holding this cricketing extravaganza on the theme ‘1st  Drug Free Youth T20 Cricket Tournament’, Mr Parvaiz said that there is a need to organize more and more Tournaments on this theme to spread it among the masses and help youth not to derail from the mainstream.
“Such sporting events apart from promoting sports in the State, promote harmony and eradicate evils from the society,” expressed Mr Malik.
Earlier, winning the toss and batting first, KCCC scored a fighting total of 148 runs in the stipulated 20 overs, losing 8 wickets in the process. Shubam Khajuria top scored with 60 runs off 42 balls, studded with 5 fours and 3 massive sixes, while Dhruv Mahajan, Vimarsh Kaw, Raman Dutta and Manik Gupta contributed 19, 18 and 14 runs to the total respectively. For NCC, speedster Nitin Mehra and left-arm spinner Vijay Dogra scalped 3 wickets each, while Pranav Mahajan claimed one wicket.
In reply, NCC, despite a brilliant knock of 65 runs by Sagar Gupta managed to score 145 runs to lose the match by a narrow margin of 3 runs. Apart from Sagar’s 39-ball 65 runs, Manish Dogra and Kavaljeet Singh contributed 34 and 26 runs respectively. For KCCC, Raman Dutta bagged 3 wickets, while Manik Gupta and Soumay Jain took 2 wickets each. Shubam Khajuria was adjudged man of the match, while Pardeep Bali was declared man of the series. Avinash Singh Jamwal and Pranav Mahajan were named best batsman and best bowler respectively.
The match was officiated by Sahil Sharma and Dayal Singh as umpires, while Lakshya Khajuria was the scorer.
Prominent among others present on the occasion were Sarpanch Gharota, Narinder Singh; member organizing committee, Rakesh Abrol; coach Randhir Singh and former Ranji trophy and senior cricketers Rajesh Gill, Sanjay Sharma and Sandeep Singh (Sunny).