An exemplary leader

The Cooch Behar Trophy, the premier domestic competition for cricketers aged under nineteen, kicked off this season with the zonal league matches in September and October. In the South Zone, there were some prominent casualties strewn about the wayside, like Karnataka and Hyderabad. Only Tamil Nadu and Andhra made it through to the knockout stages held at the steel city of Jamshedpur. Tamil Nadu, which got a bye into the quarter finals, were drawn to play the home team Bihar.

The three day game dawned on December 5 at Keenan stadium and Vidyuth Sivaramakrishnan, Tamil Nadu captain, won the toss and invited his batsmen to pad up. The visitors swiftly plunged into trouble against left arm spinner Ajay Yadav and Vidyuth found himself walking to the wicket at 64/5. He responded by launching a blistering counter attack, belting three fours and three sixes en route to a rapid 60 off 74 balls. Vidyuth's cavalier knock ended when he stepped down the track once too often to Yadav and was stumped by wicketkeeper MS Dhoni.

The innings terminated at tea for 188 but Tamil Nadu struck four times in the final session and Bihar had a fight on their hands at 62/4. The next day, Bihar slumped further to 97/6 but Aamir Hashmi, abetted by lower order batsmen, Dhoni and Vikash Kumar, guided the total to 299. Vidyuth rang in the bowling changes fast and thick with upto nine bowlers being used. But it was the captain who delivered the finishing stroke himself, knocking over the last five men to gather figures of 5/75.

In the second innings, the Tamil Nadu strokemakers belatedly made amends, scoring 271/8 in 63 overs. The declaration was made shortly before tea and at the stroke of the tea interval, Bihar were in deep waters at 33/4. Tamil Nadu were close to scripting a fairytale triumph. As it turned out though, Bihar survived but only just. Vidyuth, who'd opened the bowling with his slow left arm spinners, and fellow spinner Velmurugan never let the pressure relax with a probing line and length but time finally ran out on them.

The disappointment must have been acute in the Tamil Nadu camp, more so for Vidyuth, whose match figures of 8/107 besides the first innings knock of 60, reflected how hard he had pressed for that elusive victory. But there was a notable consolation for his pains - a place in the India squad for the Under 19 World Cup in Colombo.