Chasing 444, Uttar Pradesh pulled off an astounding three-wicket win against defending champions Mumbai in the U19 Cooch Behar Trophy final to claim the title. Three of the top four batsmen - Shivam Chaudhary (121), Madhav Kaushik (136) and Rinku Singh (130) - helped the team to a memorable win.
After conceding the first innings lead to Mumbai, the Chaudhary-led team determinedly scaled the mammoth target after beginning the chase in the last session on the penultimate day. Coming in to bat in the fifth over, No 3 batsman, Madhav took the team within two runs of the target before being run out in the final moments of the game.
He joined his captain in laying the foundation for the humongous target with a 163-run partnership for the second wicket after losing opener Arjun Rawat with 33 runs on the board. The duo took the team to 118 for one at Stumps on the third day. The stand was broken by Omkar Jadhav in the first session on the fourth day.
Rinku then joined Kaushik to keep the team in the reckoning. Stitching another solid stand, they seized the advantage from the home team as they took team to 391 until Prithivi Shaw accounted for the middle-order batsman.
With the team total on 442, Kaushik was run-out. Shanu Saini then helped the team score the last two runs and claim the trophy.
Earlier, after electing to bat, Mumbai posted 289 runs on the board with H Tamore top-scoring for the home team with 76 runs. S Mulani then helped Mumbai claim a first innings lead with a five-for. While he claimed five for 70, Sidak Singh took three for 57.
Rudra Dhanday (122) and Omkar Jadhav (130) then helped Mumbai build on the 84-run lead. After Dhanday departed in the second session of Day Three, ending the fifth wicket partnership for 116, Jadhav strove to add to the total with the lower-order. Although wickets fell in quick succession, he farmed the strike while batting with the last man, Minad Manjrekar, in an effort to extend the innings. In a late onslaught, he slammed sixes to get to the three-figure mark. However, he was out towards the fag end of the second session.
Match result: UP won by 3 wickets
Brief scores: Mum 1st inn 289/10 in 75.5 overs (H Tamore 76, S Mulani 56, Harshavardhan 3/53, T Trivedi 3/75); UP 1st inn 205/10 in 69.2 overs (S Chaudhary 54, S Mulani 5/70, S Singh 3/57); Mum 2nd inn 359/10 in 93.1 overs (O Jadhav 130, R Dhanday 122, S Saini 6/108, T Trivedi 3/129); UP 2nd inn 446/7 in 102.3 overs (M Kaushik 136, R Singh 130, S Chaudhary 121)
