Balaji bowls Jolly Rovers into quarterfinals

Jolly Rovers took only three overs on Sunday morning to wrap up their MRF Buchi Babu invitation cricket tournament first round tie against Indian Airlines by an innings and 108 runs at the IIT-Chemplast ground.

Airlines, 264 runs in arrears on the first innings and 148 for five in 36 overs in their second innings overnight, were facing defeat. But few would have imagined that the proceedings on the final day would last just three overs. Medium pacer L Balaji, in excellent form of late, brought the innings to a swift end by picking up four wickets, three of them in one over to end the match. He had Vijay Dahiya leg before for eight. And in the following over, he bowled Sagamdeep Singh with the first ball, bowled Vineeth Jain with the fourth ball and had Sonu Sharma caught by J Harish to terminate the Airlines second innings at 156 after 39 overs. Balaji, who took six for 34 in the first innings had six for 35 the second time around giving him match figures of 12 for 69. Off spinner R Ramkumar who dismissed J Arun Kumar for 45 on the final morning, took three for 46.

In the three day quarterfinals, which commence on Monday, Jolly Rovers meet All India Associate Banks at IIT Chemplast ground. The other pairings are: National Cricket Academy vs Indian Railways (CPT-IP), MRF vs New Zealand A (MA Chidambaram stadium) and Cricket Association of Bengal vs Karnataka State Cricket Association (Guru Nanak college grounds).