
MUMBAI, JAN 23: The duo of Sharmas 8212; cricketer Yashpal and commentator Charu 8212; won the CHAMPS foundation-organised festive double wicket tournament defeating another heavyweight pair of Kapil Dev and Vijay Mallya at the Cricket Club of India.
It was an anti-climatic final after some histrionics in the semi-finals. Believe it or not, Kapil Dev was out thrice in three consecutive balls in Charu Sharma8217;s first over 8212; yorked off the first ball and caught by Nilesh Patwardhan from the next two. Nilesh was later named the best fielder.
In the following over, Kapil was out twice more and all that the Sharmas had to do was play out and for good measure, Yashpal, a member of the 83 World Cup winning squad, blasted a couple of fours and sixes to win comfortably.
In the semi-final, Sharmas survived Sir Viv Richards and Pawan Munjal.
The last named pair needed 10 runs off two balls and Richards nonchalantly lifted a six over extra-cover but was caught by Yashpal in the deep off the next ball.
Kapil Dev, whowas wearing golf spike shoes and a cotton trouser instead of the usual whites, perfected his swings in the semi-final clash against Balwinder Sandhu and Pappu Bhutani. Some of Kapil8217;s sixes landed well out of the boundary, into the first tier. Sandhu and Bhutani were batted out of the contest but not before Kapil took a brilliant catch of Sandhu, running backward from his follow-through.
CHAMPS, a brain child of Sunil Gavaskar, has the noble intention of helping the needy sportspersons. It was their first venture after launching their foundation. The foundation was presented a cheque of Rs 2 lakhs by the Cricket Club of India.