The final of the maiden Radhey Shyam Sharma memorial invitation cricket tournament was organized with a lot of fanfare recently at Karnail Singh Railway Stadium in New Delhi. The three-week well-contested prize money invitation competition culminated with a final between Colllage and Noida Wonders teams. Both sides played calculated cricket, outplaying their opponents to emerge top teams to play in the final.
However, the final turned out to be a lop-sided match. Collage team won the toss and opted to bat first. The swashbuckling cricket enabled Collage side to go after Noida bowlers with disdain, hitting them all over the park. In the stipulated 40 over match, Collage team piled up a formidable total of 340 while losing 8 wickets. The massive score was result of scintillating knock of Arjun Raparia, and well-compiled innings of Ankit Dabas (95 each) and Smarth Seth (90).
Noida Wonders proved no match to their opponents. The penetrative bowling of Collage team was instrumental in the tame surrender. and compiled a humble total of 180 runs to concede the crucial match by 160 runs. Gagan Vats was the only batsman to make a mark by scoring 62 invaluable runs for his side. It was Digvesh’s deadly spell of seven overs, capturing 7 wickets to catapult the Collage team to paltry 180 runs.
The prizes were distributed by Vikas Singh and Sneh Bansal to winning Collage and runners up Noida Wonders team. The winners and runners up teams received trophies and cash prizes of Rs, 51 thousand and Rs. 31 thousand respectively. Man of the tournament (Ankit Dabas) while Sanskar Rawat and Digvesh received the best batter and bowler trophies and cash prize of Rs. 11 thousand each. Among prominent personalities who watched the final were Olympian medalist Sakshi Malik, Rakesh Pavaria, DCP, Delhi Police, Ranji players of yester years NP Singh, Shanker Saini, Rahul Sharma Pradeep Jain, Pawan Sharma, Shekhar Sharma, Durga Prasad, Vijay Bahadur Mishra, Peacock Academy chief Surjit Verma, former Delhi coach Anil Chaudhary and sports journalist Vijay Kumar. Late Radhey Shyam Sharma was offered floral tribute by his wife Promila, son Narendra, daughter-in-law Sonia and daughters Sunita and Alka. All in all, it was a well-organised tournament with precision by Narendra Sharma ably assisted by Manish Kaushik.
The tournament had touching moments as well. Santan Singh, ex Delhi College cricketer, now living in the comforts of California in the USA who was coached by Radhey Shyam Sharma during his hey days more than two decades ago played for Subhania Cricket Club remembered his mentor fondly and with gratitude. The others from Subhania Cricket Club who played in the Ranji trophy are Avnish Sudha, Swastik Chikara, Jayant Lakhav, Mayank, Aman Jakhad, Devendra Locha, Kunal Chandela, Rajat Paliwal, and Ashwini Chillar to name only a few.
Noida Wonders proved no match to their opponents penetrative bowling in compiling a humble total of 180 runs to concede the crucial match by 160 runs. It was Digvesh’s deadly spell of seven overs to catapult the Collage team in paltry 180 runs.
The cricket fraternity of the capital city responded admirably as Vikas Singh, Senior Advocate of Supreme Court , Padma Shri bestowed commentator Dr. Ravi Chaturvedi, Sneh Bansal, ex Vice President, BCCI and former President of the DDCA, Olympian wrestler Sakshi Malik, Dr. Tamim Ahmed and members of practically all DDCA affiliated teams and Noor Mohammed Khan from Jamia Millia Islamia University came to pay their respects to a coach who had nursed and nurtured generation of cricketers in Delhi.
