Saxena spins Rovers to big victory over Trotters

CHENNAI: A match-winning spell of 11 for 89 from off-spinner Jalaj Saxena helped Jolly Rovers beat Globe Trotters by 86 runs in the ninth round of the TNCA First Division League here on Tuesday.

Set to chase 139, Trotters was bundled out for 52 in 25.5 overs with the right-left spin combination of Saxena and S Mohan Prasath accounting for all 10 wickets. While the seasoned Saxena ended up taking seven for 19, Mohan scalped three for 21.

Elsewhere, Nidhish S Rajagopal’s 142 (230b, 16x4, 2x6) couldn’t help Grand Slam take the important first-innings lead against Sea Hawks. Resuming from its overnight score of 134 for two, Grand Slam was all out for 373 in reply to Sea Hawks’ 428.

Brief scores: Alwarpet 598/4 decl. drew with India Pistons 468 in 124.3 overs (M Mithul Raj 86, Rajat Paliwal 141, K Deeban Lingesh 108, S Sharun Kumar 61, K Gowtham Thamarai Kannan 3/87, R Ganesh 3/102, NS Harish 3/127). Points: Alwarpet 5 (19); Pistons 1 (25); Jolly Rovers 193 & 137 in 62 overs (B Aparajith 51, S Ajith Ram 7/53, S Lakshay Jain 3/38) bt Globe Trotters 192 & 52 in 25.5 overs (Jalaj Saxena 7/19, S Mohan Prasath 3/21). Rovers 6 (43); Trotters 0 (31); Nelson 308 & 253/9 decl. in 58 overs (Maan K Bafna 82, Swapnil K Singh 84, Bhargav Bhatt 7/97) drew with Vijay 228 & 68/3 in 24 overs. Nelson 5 (38); Vijay 1 (31); Sea Hawks 428 drew with Grand Slam 373 in 111.3 overs (C Hari Nishaanth 73, R Kavin 50, Nidhish S Rajagopal 142, J Suresh Kumar 41, R Karthikeyan 4/78, N Selvakumaran 4/82). Sea Hawks 5 (19); Grand Slam 1 (24); Swaraj 372 & 85/1 in 19 overs (S Aravind 50*) drew with UFCC (T Nagar) 401 in 115.3 overs (Ch. Jitendra Kumar 133, Swapnil Gugale 66, l Maaruthi Raghav 66, R Vivek 46, Shubhan Krishnan Sridhar 3/82, M Ashwin 4/143). UFCC 5 (19) ; Swaraj 1 (13)