India win Emerging Players Tournament title by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Allan Border Field, Brisbane
Scorecard:	National Cricket Academy v South Africa Emerging Players
Player:	LL Tsotsobe, RR Rossouw, V Kohli
Event:	Cricket Australia Emerging Players Tournament 2009

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DateLine: 1st August 2009

 

National Cricket Academy, aided by Virat Kohli's aggressive century and Sudeep Tyagi's four wicket haul, emerged as the winners of Emerging Players Tournament by defeating South Africa at the Allan Border Field in Brisbane. The South African team was undefeated in the whole tournament, but their one lose was enough to deny them the title.

 

Put in to bat, India scored 283 for nine in their allotted 50 overs, thanks mainly to Kohli's 102-ball 104 and wicket-keeper Wriddhiman Shah's 74 of 59 balls. South Africans in reply were bowled out for 266 in 46.2 overs with Sudeep Tyagi returning with figures of four wickets for 72 runs in his ten overs.

 

The Indian innings did not start off in the right note as they lost two wickets in the very first over of the match. Lonwabe Tsotsobe trapped Ajinkya Rahane lbw in the first over and in the very next ball he had M Vijay lbw for a duck to leave India tottering at 7 for 2. Kohli and captain S Badrinath (20) stabilised the innings by adding 49 runs for the third wicket but then the South African bowlers struck back to leave India at a precarious 109 for five.

 

It looked like the innings would lose the direction but then Kohli found an able ally in Saha with whom he added 78 for the sixth wicket. As the innings progressed Kohli began to open up and play more shots as he raised his century. It was a brilliant counterattacking innings as he was able to put the innings back on track. Taking cue, Saha too began to find boundaries and with some late-order hitting from Mishra, NCA reached a challenging total of 283 in their alloted 50 overs. Tsotsobe finished with 5 for 69.

 

In reply, the South African openers put on 52 in just 5.4 overs as they scattered the Indian new-ball bowlers to all parts of the ground. Rilee Rossouw was the aggressive of the two as he slammed three huge sixes but Tyagi who was at the wrong end of the punishment cleaned him up.

 

Though the Indian bowlers leaked runs at alarming rate, they were able to take wickets at regular intervals to stymie the South African chase. Henry Davids scored a well-paced 82 but he did not receive any adequate support from his teammates. The South African batsmen did not help themselves with poor sense of running between the wickets as they squandered their wickets away to gift the match to India.