Northward journey for Vinoo Mankad Trophy

The North Zone Under 19 team won the Vinoo Mankad Trophy at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on January 1st beating Rest of India by three wickets. The Vinoo Mankad trophy is contested by the winner of the CK Nayudu inter zonal tournament and the Rest of India. North had won the CK Nayudu Trophy just a day earlier after winning all four matches in the round robin league.

The Rest of India won the toss and made 223-7 in their 50 overs. Prashant Joshi top scored with 95 (106 balls, 6 fours, 1 six) before he was run out and Sushant Manjrekar provided the acceleration towards the end with an unbeaten 41 off 43 balls (3 fours, 1 six). For North Ravneet Ricky took two wickets but captain Reetinder Sodhi was the best bowler with figures of 10-4-25-1.

North openers Ravneet Ricky(66) and Manish Sharma (76) then seemed to have taken the game away from the Rest by putting on 141 for the first wicket in 35.5 overs. But Rest captain Venugopala Rao triggered a collapse by ripping out the North top order. He grabbed 5 wickets in the space of 20 balls to reduce North to 168-5 and the game again hung in the balance. When North lost their seventh wicket at 203 from the last ball of the 47th over they needed 21 from 24 balls. But Chetan Sharma put the issue beyond doubt with a rousing 17 from 7 balls as North won with an over to spare. No.4 Yuvraj Singh had withstood all the mayhem from the other end with an unruffled 36 from 28 balls. Rao ended with 5-37 from 9 overs.

The list of 25 probables for the Under 19 World Cup beginning January 11 will be pruned to a final squad of 15 by the junior national selection committee when they meet at Chennai tomorrow.