Sports Reporter :

 

NAGPUR Cricket Academy (NCA) team stamped its authority to retain the Thunderbird Under-13 Cricket Tournament at Mecosabagh round on Tuesday. In the final, NCA, who had won the inaugural edition as well, thrashed Kartiik Josshii Cricket Academy Junior, Chandrapur by nine wickets to lay their hands on a glittering trophy. Opting to bat first backfired for Chandrapur as they lost wickets at regular intervals and managed to post a below par 104-7 in 25 overs. Heenu Kumar top-scored for Chandrapur with an unbeaten 29 runs while Arjun Katare scored 18 and Aarna Ghorpade 13 runs.

 

For NCA, Virat Lodhe, Jayant Kale and Tirth Gandhi took two wickets each. In reply, NCA openers clobbered Chandrapur bowlers to add 103 runs and then achieved the target (107) in 15.1 overs. Nishant Gautam remained unbeaten on 77 from 48 deliveries which had 15 boundaries and a six while Siddhi Yadav played second fiddle posting 26 runs. Advocate Diksha Jethani, High Court Practitioner, was chief guest of the prize distribution function. Sonali Nakshine, Sapna Jana, Madhav Bakre and Sanmukh Dudani were the guests of honour. Upendra Singh and Sugat Lad worked hard for the success of the tournament.