India beat Pakistan to win Red Bull Campus Cricket c`ship

Colombo: Skipper Kunal Mahajan led from the front with a half-century as DAV College, Chandigarh beat Karachi University by 49 runs to win the Red Bull Campus Cricket T20 World Series championshipon Saturday.

Put in to bat, Chandigarh rode on Mahajan`s 36-ball 73 and some fine contributions from Gurinder Singh (39) and Piyush Sharma (24) to post a challenging 170 for eight in 20 overs at the R Premadasa Stadium. Defending the total, Indian bowlers kept a tight leash over Pakistan`s scoring rate to bowl out the arch-rivals for 121 runs in 19 overs. Karachi University kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as none of its batsmen showed intent to grind it out and bide time at the wicket. Opener Ammar Hasan waged a lonely battle with a fine 49-ball 58, laced with seven fours and one six, as eight of the Pakistani batsmen failed to touch the double-digit mark. Left-arm spinner Gurinder Singh shown with a four-wicket haul to finish with figures of four for 20 while right-arm medium pacer Ratan Singh chipped in with three wickets for 16 runs. Simran Singh also made his presence felt, picking up two wickets for 31 runs as India completed a well-deserved victory. Earlier, DAV College was off to a worst possible start as they were reduced to two for three inside four overs by the pace duo of Meer Hamza and Nabeel Khalid. Mahajan and Gurinder then resurrected the innings with an 87-run stand for the fifth wicket to take the attack into opposition`s camp. Both first steadied the sinking ship and then went on the offensive to put the team in a commanding position. After their departure, Sharma played a little cameo towards the end hitting 11-ball 24 to take the team`s total past 150-run mark. Gurinder was adjudged the Man-of-the-Series for his all-round performance during the whole tournament. PTI