Some top quality fast bowling, backed up by good fielding, put Vijay CC on top against Jolly Rovers CC on the first day of the TNCA first division elite championship final on Sunday.
Jolly Rovers was all out for 212 in 83.2 overs with pacer A. Aswin Crist picking up four wickets.
For Rovers, only skipper C. Hemant Kumar managed to go past 50, resurrecting the innings with two crucial partnerships down the order.
Electing to bat, the defending champion was up against it right from the beginning with some accurate fast bowling from Vijay CC pacers L. Vignesh, Crist and Vijay Shankar.
The pitch offered good bounce and the pacers made use of the conditions by bowling tight lines.
Vijay CC kept picking wickets regularly in the opening session, putting the defending champion on the backfoot immediately.
Opener Sheldon Jackson was the first to go when he was caught at backward point while trying to cut off Crist.
Soon Robin Bist, the double centurion in the semifinal, was caught behind off Vijay Shankar, and Crist then produced a brilliant in-swinging yorker to bowl Ankit Bawne.
While wickets were falling around him, opener K.H. Gopinath kept things afloat for Rovers by playing some delightful shots, but he too perished, on 32, with Rovers struggling at 58 for five.
Hemant and Piyush Chawla steadied the ship to take the team to lunch without any further hiccups.
Chawla, then, gave the innings a much-needed momentum with some aggressive batting, hitting eight boundaries in his knock before he was dismissed four short of his half-century.
The duo added 71 runs for the sixth wicket.
Hemant, with some help from M. Prabhu, added another 42 for the seventh wicket, bringing up his fifty and helping Rovers cross 200.
The scores: Jolly Rovers CC 212 in 83.2 overs (C. Hemant Kumar 77, Piyush Chawla 46, A. Aswin Crist four for 44) vs Vijay CC.
