Chemplast defeat Roofit XI by five wickets in final

Shrugging off a poor start, Chemplast, Chennai completed a five wicket victory over Roofit XI, Mumbai to win the Coromandel Cement Cup in the KSCA Diamond Jubilee invitation tournament at the Maharaja Jayachamdaraja Wodayar Sports Centre in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Roofit XI, who were 143 for eight in their second innings at close of play on the second day after gaining a first innings lead of 13 runs were all out without adding any run. Left arm spinner R Ramkumar took both wickets to finish with three for 24 off 6.4 overs.

This left Chemplast a target of 157 in the allotted 40 overs. But they made a a shocking start. Sujith Somasundar (2), S Badrinath (3) and Aditya Srikkanth (0) were out with only 27 runs on the board. However the other opener Jinju Joseph and skipper Ajay Kudua put the innings back on the rails with a fourth wicket stand of 91 runs off 19.3 overs. By the time Joseph was out for 61 off 84 balls with seven hits to the ropes, Chemplast were well on the road to victory. Kudua and J Hariesh (29 not out) then virtually finished the job but with the scores level, Kudua was out for 54. He faced 74 balls and hit six fours. Off the next ball, Hariesh got the winning boundary.