Pro Coach Yorkshire U-17 tournament: Junior Super Kings clinch titles in both T20 and 50-over formats
What's the story
The Junior Super Kings were in the process of touring Yorkshire in England, where they were to attend the second edition of the Pro Coach Yorkshire Cricket Academy tournament. Latest news from the side is that the young lions have won both the T20 and 50 over competitions of the famed tournament that concluded in Yorkshire (UK) on Thursday.
In case you didn't know...
The International Junior Academy Tournament is an Under-17 tournament conducted by the Pro Coach Yorkshire Academy and the one which the CSK's young lions won was the second edition of the tournament.
The Junior Super Kings team comprises of the best players selected from the Junior Super Kings T20 tournament conducted by the CSK management in Chennai, an event in which various schools from across the state participate. The initiative is fully sponsored by Chennai Super Kings Cricket Limited to provide international exposure to some of the best young players in the state.
Former Tamil Nadu captain S Sharath accompanied the team to Yorkshire as coach while Chennai Super Kings batsman Ambati Rayudu was the mentor.
The details
The four teams that participated in the tournament are the HDS Academy (Brisbane, Australia), California Cricket Academy (California, USA), Pro Coach Yorkshire Cricket Academy (Yorkshire, England), and the Junior Super Kings (Tamil Nadu, India).
Each team played round-robin matches with all the other teams, and the two leaders in the end, played the finals. Junior Super Kings won 10 out of 11 matches that they played on the fortnight-long tour, as several highlighting performances from youngsters like Arjun P Murthy, Vikram Satheesh, and Vignesh S Iyer.
Both the players and the coaches had some happy words to say at the end of the events. Tarun George, a player, found the tournament a fantastic learning experience and said that the team was grateful for the opportunity. Given the coaches and mentors abundant with experience and the swing-assisting conditions that they had to face in England, he added that the experience was an eye-opener.
Coach Sharath and Mentor Rayudu were also quick to laud their boys' performances, both as individuals and as a single team. While Sharath praised the professionalism in their approach that resulted in attaining desired results, Rayudu was impressed by the talent he came across on the side. He added that it was a good experience mentoring the kids and watching them play.
Brief Scores from the final games:
T20 final - Queensland Youth Cricket 74/9 in 20 overs (Amit Nair 23*, Nirmal Kumar 3/22, Manav Parekh 3/8) lost to Junior Super Kings 78/0 in 6.1 overs (Arjun P Murthy 50*, Vignesh S Iyer 20*).
50 overs final - Junior Super Kings 339/6 in 50 overs (Vignesh S Iyer 107, Arjun P Murthy 78, Sai Sudarshan 68, Keshav 2/48) beat California Cricket Academy 139/10 in 39.5 overs (Keshav 39, Nirmal Kumar 3/31, Sai Sudarshan 2/2).
What's next
The Junior Super Kings will now return home to be felicitated by the CSK management.