Merchant Trophy: Indulkar, Bagul hit unbeaten centuries

Mumbai which had already made sure of entering the final of the Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy tournament on Monday, had things their own way on the final day of the match against Tamil Nadu at the Medical college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

Overnight 225 for three in reply to Tamil Nadu's first innings total of 174, Mumbai batted on and on till they declared at 405 for three off 158 overs. On the final day they scored 180 runs off 70 overs without losing a wicket. The architects of this splendid performance were VA Indulkar and SP Bagul who both got unbeaten centuries. While Indulkar hit 122 off 292 balls with 12 fours, Bagul scored 102 off 289 balls with seven fours. They shared an unbroken fourth wicket partnership of 227 runs off 89.3 overs. In the remaining time, Tamil Nadu scored 67 for two off 22.5 overs in their second innings.

Mumbai meet Uttar Pradesh in the three day final commencing on Thursday.

After surviving some anxious moments, Uttar Pradesh defeated Andhra by five wickets to enter the final of the Vijay Merchant (under-16) Trophy final at the Vellyani Agricultural college ground in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

Andhra, resuming their second innings at 122 for three, were all out for 171. R Jaiswal and N Chowdhury brought about a sharp collapse as Andhra lost their last seven wickets for 31 runs off 13.3 overs. Jaiswal finished with three for 21 and Chaudhury with four for 38. Skipper Gnaneswara Rao top scored with 40.

Requiring 129 runs for victory, UP lost four wickets for 48 but Sarthak Shukla (34 not out) and R Elahi (39) put them on the road to victory with a fifth wicket partnership of 61 runs off 21 overs. Shukla and SK Upadhayay (10 not out) then applied the finishing touches.