In honour of Balan Pandit
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Balan Pandit, the 85-year-old former cricketer, reckoned as one of the finest old-timers in Kerala cricket, probably did not know that the younger generation played a tournament in his honour at the North Paravur Municipal Stadium.
But the T20 tournament played on a matting wicket, participated by the best teams in the state turned out to be a befitting tribute to the living legend. The tournament was organised by the Sobers Cricket Club in North Paravur.
Bijil K. Vijayan, president of the club, said they could not fly down Balan Pandit as he was ill, but two members of his family were present at the venue for the first of its kind tourney in name of the former right-hand batsman.
Balan Pandit’s record unbeaten 262 runs scored against Andhra at the Victoria College Ground, Palakad in the 1959-60 season stood for nearly 48 years until it was broken by Sreekumaran Nair, who made an unbeaten 306 against the Services in 2007.
“As it was the first tournament of its kind in the name of the former cricketer, we cannot say it was a huge success, still we are quite motivated and want to conduct it in an improved way in the coming years,” said Bijil.
The star-studded State Bank of Travancore (SBT), Thiruvananthapuram was crowned champions in the tournament as they thrashed Sudharma Apex, Thrissur by 8 wickets in the final on Sunday.
It was Sudharma’s chance to set a formidable target for the bank men, however the Thrissur side could only manage to score 117 in 19.5 overs. Vishnu, who was later, adjudged the best batsman of the tourney scored 58 for Sudharma.
For SBT, the man of the match and current Kerala skipper V. A. Jagadeesh struck 4/10 bowling his medium pacers while speedster Anthaf P. U. scalped 4/20.
Vinan G. Nair set the tempo for a successful run chase with his unbeaten 69 off 58 deliveries and Anfal P. M. made 38 as SBT achieved their target, losing just 2 wickets with 2.5 overs to spare.
Sinu Raj of Kaizeen YCC, North Paravur, who collected 208 runs and 6 wickets from 5 matches was declared the man-of-the-series while his teammate, Anandakuttan took the honours for best bower for 11 wickets from 4 matches.
SBT’s Thejus, Vyshak Chandran of Loongs Cricket Academy and Godson of Sudharma Apex were presented the best wicket keeper, best all-rounder and promising youngster awards respectively.
Digin Paul of Hercules Kids Thiruvananthapuram won the best innings award for his swashbuckling 102 off 51 deliveries, P. Prajeesh of Excel Kodakara claimed the best bowling performance award for his 5/15 and the best catch award was grabbed by Sony of Swantons.
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