Haryana lifted the Vijay Merchant Trophy after beating Jharkhand in the final on the basis of first innings lead, riding on a lion-hearted effort from new ball bowlers Vivek Kumar and Anuj Thakral.
In the final of the National U-16 Cricket tournament at the Devineni Venkata Ramana Praneetha Ground, Haryana scored 247 in their first innings with Ahan Poddar top-scoring with 57 off 177 balls, hitting 10 boundaries.
Jharkhand's Abhishek took six wickets for 48 runs but Haryana seamers Vivek (5/59) and Anuj (5/53) bowled the opposition out for 186 in 66.1 overs.
The 61-run first innings lead proved to be decisive in the end as Haryana batted Jharkhand out of the contest, scoring a mammoth 502 for 9 in 163.1 overs before declaring.
There were five half-centuries in the second innings from number 4, 5,6, 7 and 8 batsmen. They were Piyush Dahiya (64), Nishant Sindhu (53), Parth Vats (70), Yuvraj Singh (93) and Sarvesh Rohilla (60).
Before the umpires called time, Jharkhand scored 93 for 3 in their second innings.
The victory could be attributed to a robust junior development programme undertaken by Haryana Cricket Association.
Recently, HCA roped in Glenn McGrath, who held a workshop for the talented age-group pacers from the state and was all praise for the talent coming out of the state.
Brief Scores:
Haryana 247 (Ahan Poddar 57, Abhishek 6/48) and 502/9 declared (Yuvraj Singh 93, Parth Vats 70).
Jharkhand 186 (Aryan Hooda 83, Vivek Kumar 5/59, Anuj Thakral 5/53).
