Andhra Cricket Association lifting the glittering Dr. K. Thimmappiah Memorial Trophy at Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bengaluru on Friday beating the best of teams has come as a shot in the arm for the administrators and coaches as the gruelling domestic season is all set to begin in two months time.
ACA, by virtue of first innings lead, emerged winner against Gujarat in the final and team’s batting coach Hemal Watekar felt that the team work was the key reason for the success.
“It is nice to see talented players like Hanuma Vihari, K.S. Bharat, B. Sumanth, Venugopala Rao, Jyothi Sai Krishna, Ricky Bhui, Karthik Raman, and Ayyappa getting into the groove before the start of the season. Every one played their bit admirably,” felt the veteran of 70-odd First Class matches.
Andhra, before reaching the final, had defeated teams like KSCA XI and Haryana. “The credit should go to the mercurial opener-cum wicketkeeper K.S. Bharat who led the team brilliantly after the departure of Hanuma Vihari to South Africa on national duty. He notched up two big hundreds including a double and his positive approach on field gave us the edge,” he felt.
Diminutive middle order batsman B. Sumanth also cracked a double hundred and the pick of the bowlers was the young medium pacer 23-year-old Karthik Raman, who scalped 16 wickets.
“Though Karthik Raman was part of the team for two years he could not get the coveted ACA cap. He proved his critics wrong by emerging as a leading wicket-taker. He was not only quick but penetrative,” said Watekar to The Hindu from Bengaluru.
The tournament also did a whale of good to emerging players like left-arm spinner Manish and all-rounder Md. Shoaib.
A beaming ACA General Secretary Ch. Arun Kumar said that the victory at the pre-season exposure tournament boosted the morale of the administrators and coaches and gave credit to the three academies – Vizianagaram, Kadapa and Mangalagiri - for churning out talented cricketers in all age groups.
“ACA organised a quadrangular exposure tournament for u-23 segment and from Sunday we are organising another exposure tournament to u-19 players at Mulapadu. These exposure tournaments will help young cricketers get the all-important form,” he felt.
ACA pocketed ₹one lakh and incidentally it has won the first major invitation national-level tournament in 63 years after its inception.
