Spinner Kataria’s fifer goes in vain

It rarely happens that best performers with both bat and ball are from the losing side. Wednesday was such a day when KN Colts, comprising mostly young players from Gurgaon, went down by two wickets to Collage Sports Club in the 46th Lala Raghubir Singh Hot Weather Cricket Tournament at the Modern school grounds.

Neither team has qualified for the semi-finals as Sporting Club from their group has already advanced, having won both their games.

Tarun Godara, a 23-year-old Delhi native who stays in Gurgaon but plays in Kolkata league, top-scored in the match with 88 off 48 balls, to help KN Colts to 269/9, a below-par score on this pitch.

“I went in with a clear mind to attack the bowlers. Unfortunately, many of our players are very young and it was a learning process for them. So, I couldn’t get much support from the other end,” said the 25-year-old Godara, who hit nine sixes and four fours.

The inexperience was evident while fielding as the young KN Colts conceded runs through mis-fields at crucial moments to allow Collage to trudge home in 39 overs (271/8).

Like in batting, there was a solitary good performance with the ball. Left-arm spinner Garv Kataria, who took 5/37 in seven overs, was the lone man fighting and walked away with the man of the match award.

The 20-year-old Kataria, also a Gurgaon resident, however, was disappointed after the game.

“My plan was to bowl dot balls and contain runs. We did not have enough runs on the board and unfortunately, our fielding was bad,” said Kataria, who has played for Gurugram district in Haryana’s domestic Pataudi Trophy at the under-16, under-19 and under-23 levels.

He bowled two batsmen and had three caught – at long-off, point and mid-on.

“We had four-five young players, and they were playing in a big tournament in Delhi for the first time. So, they were nervous and it showed while they were fielding,” he added.

For Collage, Delhi’s ex-Ranji player Jagrit Anand scored 54 off 42 balls while opener Shubham Sharma hit 43 off 33. Bhavya Kakkar (3/47) and Sachin Kumar Singh (3/46) took three wickets each.