TEAM EFFORT LEADS TN TO WIN

A professional display by Tamil Nadu helped the team win the BCCI-Cooch Behar Trophy (Under-19) after a gap of 33 years.

- ASHOK VENUGOPAL

In the final played a few days back, their first innings lead over Gujarat helped Tamil Nadu win. After losing the season's opener to Punjab, Tamil Nadu won four matches on the trot in league stage. In the knockouts, they won outright against Delhi (P-QF), Punjab (QF) and Maharashtra (SF).

One of the outstanding performances was from off-spinner J Hemchudeshan who took 47 wickets, the highest in the tournament. He was also ably supported by left-arm spinner BK Kishore who took 38 wickets and played a crucial innings of 54 in the final. Abhinav Kannan, Akshay Sarangdhar, KV Raghav, S Shrenik, Pravin (all-rounder) were impressive among the batters. Their bowling also boosted Tamil Nadu's win. Their outright wins in the league phase gave them the confidence that they can have a crack at the title.