All India Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket tournament – Hyderabad wins the title

The Hyderabad team crowned as the winners of the All India Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket Tournament 2017/18 after defeating the TNCA President’s XI in the final by an 8-wicket margin on Friday at the SSN College Ground in Chennai. At least eight players of this Hyderabad XI were a part Hyderabad President’s XI that won the recently concluded Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in Hyderabad defeating Air India in the finals which was also a one-sided game.

After being put into bat first, the TNCA President’s XI lost their openers early on as they were reduced to 13/2 after which their captain Baba Aparajith and Washington Sundar rescued the home team with an 84-run partnership. The pair batted for 25 overs before Aparajith handed a return catch to Syed Medhi Hasan.

The skipper departed after scoring 38 off 87 balls while Washington also followed his captain after an 82-ball 45 runs. After losing the set batters, the TNCA President’s XI crawled to 204 runs before being bowled out. R Rohith (27), L Vignesh (26) and PR Paul (21) made valuable contributions to the total.

The Hyderabad openers Akshath Reddy and Tanmay Agarwal scored thirties sharing a 54-run stand for the first wicket in the 201-run chase. The Hyderabad team, that ended Day 1 at 76/1, lost an early wicket on the 2nd day of the game. However, the keeper batsman Kolla Sumanth and K Rohit Rayudu put on an unbeaten 113-run stand to take their side home. Sumanth struck a 115-ball 77 with the help of 11 fours and a six while Rohit scored 47 with seven boundaries.

Sumanth was named the player of the tournament for being the leading run-getter with 345 runs in just four innings at an average of 172.5. He scored at least fifty in all the four games as his scores read: 82, 103*, 83 and 77*. Tanmay Agarwal stood second with 259 runs. He was the top run-scorer in the Moin-ud-Dowlah with 303 runs where Sumanth scored two fifties in three innings.

Brief Scores:

TNCA President’s XI: 200/10 in 56.1 overs (Washington Sundar 45, Baba Aparajith 38; Akash Bhandari 2/7, Sudeep Tyagi 2/33)

Hyderabad: 201/2 in 56.4 overs (Kolla Sumanth 77*, K Rohit Rayudu 47*; Lakshman 1/24)

Hyderabad won by eight wickets.