SBH down Air India in thriller

Bangalore: Corporate Trophy tournament, unfancied State Bank of Hyderabad took down favourites Air India to lift the Raj Singh Dungarpur Trophy here on Thursday. Chasing a stiff 283 at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, SBH, who got off to a brilliant start only to fumble thereafter, came back in telling style to pull off what for a major part looked like a match that had slipped from their grasp.
The heroes for the victors were many and spread across the playing eleven but the heroics displayed first by the sixth-wicket pair of Ahmed Quadri and Akash Bhandari and then by the ninth-wicket duo of Pawan Kumar and Vishal Sharma were what made the day for the Bankmen, who will soon get to deposit a grand Rs 1 crore into their accounts. The six that eventual man of the match Pawan brought off when exactly that much was needed with five balls to go in the game and a lone wicket in hand, best exemplified the SBH spirit on the day, their never-say-die attitude being their chief ally.
It wasn't as if Air India didn't have their moments. Having been inserted, they were initially well served by Robin Uthappa (56, 70b, 8x4) and stand-in skipper Mohd Kaif (88, 127b, 6x4). Wicketkeeper-batsman Naman Ojha, who came in for the injured skipper Hrishikesh Kanitkar, provided the impetus, his 36-ball (48 (5x4, 3x6), after a let off on five, seemingly having put the match beyond SBH's reach, especially given the strong AI bowling line-up.
But then, this was the day the bowlers didn't come to the party, at least not Dhawal Kulkarni, who in each of his spells was taken to the cleaners, his final analysis reading 9.2-0-82-2. Opener T Suman, whose big century in the semifinal had propelled SBH into the title round, started the scaling down of the target in real earnest. With skipper Daniel Manohar for company, the right-hander brought up his half-century from a mere 26 deliveries, the openers taking 13, 15 and 8 off Kulkarni's first three overs.
That frenzied start was what allowed the Bankmen to then take their time later on. The fall of Suman (57, 36b, 10x4, 1x6), castled by a crafty straighter one from offie Ajit Chandila, changed the game around and AI, through the continued strikes of left-arm pacer Pradeep Sangwan, the tournament's highest wicket-taker, looked to be taking control.
Quadri (45, 38b, 8x4) and Bhandari (31, 31b, 3x4) had other ideas. They had got together with their side struggling at 158 for 5 in the 33rd over. They also had to deal with the fact that the bowling Power Play had yielded a mere 14 after the first 10 had produced 79. For Quadri, especially, none of it mattered. From the word go he was on the move, producing strokes at will. Kulkarni was again the bowler to suffer, the 40th over of the innings costing 15 runs and again changing the match around.
The twists weren't done as yet, for both Quadri and Bhandari fell in quick succession just before the batting Power Play had to be taken perforce. Sangwan was the man who had effected the breakthrough, having Bhandari caught behind. But then, in the big-made Pawan (33 not out, 19b, 4x4, 2x6), who had earlier claimed 4-60 with his medium pace, SBH still had one man who believed that the match could be won. A clean hit over long-on sealed the issue for the Bankmen, whose celebrations then, unsurprisingly, went on for a long time.
Brief scores: Air India: 282/9 in 50 overs (Robin Uthappa 56, Mohd kaif 88, Naman Ojha 48; Pawan Kumar 4-60, Daniel Manohar 3-37) lost to State Bank of Hyderabad: 283/9 in 49.2 overs (T Suman 57, B Sumanth 33, Anirudh Singh 29, Ahmed Quadri 45, Akash Bhandari 31, Pawan Kumar 33 n.o.; Dhawal Kulkarni 2-82, Pradeep Sangwan 3-49, Rajat Bhatia 2-46).