Vriitya, Kushal take Gladiators past Titans in 2nd Youth League final
dubai — Half centuries from Vriitya Aravind and Kushal Chaluka were the highlights of the Dubai Cricket Council’s 2nd Grids Contracting Youth League that was held at the Sevens ground in Dubai.
Gladiators went on to lift the title after beating Titans by 13 runs in the final over the weekend.
Representing Gladiators, the two batsmen Vriitya and Kushal joined hands after the fall of opener Shival Bawa (12) and raised 88 runs for the second wicket.
Vriitya continued to impress with the bat. His run-a-ball 68 was instrumental in Gladiators reaching a fighting 149. This U-16 lad looks a compact batsman and is sure to go far. With 222 runs under his belt from three matches he was a clear winner for the best batsman of the tournament award.
Kushal Chaluka too played his part in helping Gladiators to a defendable total with an unbeaten 50.
The target didn’t look stiff but Titans made it look that way when both their openers Siddhant Agrawal (3) and Akash Radhakrishnan (3) returned to the pavilion before even breaking a sweat.
Ahaan Fernandes (49) and Vinayak Vijayan (35) didn’t let themselves get bogged down and constructed a neat 85 run partnership to keep Titans very much in the chase for the title.
But Aditya Shetty spoiled their party by removing both batsmen in quick succession. Rounak Pandey also took two wickets and Titans never recovered from it.