Red-letter day for Vidarbha: U-16 boys create history

NAGPUR: The scenes were amazing at Holkar Stadium in Indore. As soon as Sandesh Drugwar caught Uttar Pradesh No 10 Vishant Thakur to give all-rounder Prerit Agrawal his sixth wicket, an ebullient Vidarbha team ran towards the pavilion with stumps in their hands. The boys were screaming, dancing and hugging each other. Coach Ranjit Paradkar was happy but not over the moon and was soon surrounded by his players.They were all extremely happy and they had every reason to be. After all they had achieved what no other Vidarbha did in the last 82 years.
January 29, 2017 would be remembered forever in history of Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA). VCA finally got its first championship when its Under-16 team defeated Uttar Pradesh in the final to win the Vijay Merchant Trophy. When the boys came together eight months ago, the main goal was to qualify for the knockouts. The team, however, exceeded the expectations and got better with every match. They recorded four outright victories out of eight matches. Most importantly two of those came in semi-final and final.
"I am happy for VCA that the team created history. I watched the action on all four days and liked the attitude of these boys. Their body language was positive. The intensity was right up there, which is a must in these crunch matches. The performances in knockouts counts more as one bad match can throw you out of the competition. Talking about this match, it was a complete team performance by Vidarbha," former legspinner Narendra Hirwani, who was at the Holkar stadium as an observer for BCCI, told TOI on Sunday.
Vidarbha players achieved quite a few milestones as well. Leg-spinner Rohit Dattatraya finished the highest wicket taker in the country with 61 wickets in eight matches at an impressive average of 14.78 with the help of eight five-wicket hauls. Aman Mokhade finished second highest run scorer in the country with 526 runs at an average of 43.83 hitting two hundred and two fifties.
"I chatted with the boys too. While Rohit was a standout performer, I would like to mention the role of left-arm spinners Harsh Dubey and Prerit Agrawal. Harsh kept things tight in the first innings, while Prerit exploited the conditions perfectly. They hardly missed the catch in the last four days. Vidarbha also batted well in both innings. Drugwar played a superb knocks in both innings. All in all, it was a well-deserved trophy for boys," Hirwani added.