Karun Nair, KL Srijith power Vultures CC to title win in YS Ramaswamy Memorial 2020 Tournament
Half-centuries from Karun Nair (73) and KL Srijith (96) were some of the highlights as Vultures Cricket Club clinched silverware with a 107-run win over Mount Joy Cricket Club in the final of the YS Ramaswamy Memorial Tournament at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.
Vultures CC were always in the game right from the get-go, after Mount Joy CC skipper Aditya Somanna won the toss and opted to put his opponents in to bat. Nair came out all guns blazing, and notched up his fifty off just 56 balls before perishing for a 65-ball 73 in the 23rd over.
Post his departure, young southpaw Srijith continued in his merry way and kept the scoreboard ticking. In company of skipper Pavan Deshpande (54-ball 52), Srijith milked the bowling around, and the duo put on a 114-run stand to lay the foundation for some big hitting in the slog overs.
Despite Deshpande and Srijith's dismissals within the space of two overs, pyrotechnics from Anirudha Joshi (22-ball 46), Abhimanyu Mithun (15-ball 25) and J Suchith (9-ball 15) propelled Vultures CC to 334/7 from 50 overs.
Vultures CC dismantle the Mount Joy CC batting unit
Needing to scale down a challenging 335-run total, Mount Joy CC never looked like they were in the run-chase at any point in time.
The Vultures CC bowlers reduced their opponents to 56/5 within 15 overs, and with the likes of Sharath BR (5-ball 4) and skipper Somanna (7-ball 1) back in the hut, the writing was almost on the wall.
It took a half-century from Rohan Nayakar (81-ball 87) and a handy 60-ball 42 from Sharan Gouda to delay the inevitable, as a stacked Vultures CC unit looked primed to get over the line comfortably.
Mount Joy CC somehow managed to drag the game all the way until the 48th over, before J Suchith castled Pavan Gokhale to bring about a massive 107-run win for his side.
Some of the stars from this competition are next expected to be in action for Karnataka when the domestic season begins in the second week of January 2021.