Air India batsman Naman Ojha and captain Suresh Raina coasted the team to a six-wicket victory over Karnataka State Cricket Association XI in the final of the inaugural Twenty20 Bradman Cup at the Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore on Sunday.
Chasing 121 in the rain-curtailed final, opener Ojha slammed 66 in 50 balls with the help of five fours and two sixes as his team won with an over to spare. The effort also helped him bag the man of the match award.
The hosts finished at 117 in their 17 overs but the target was revised for Air India according to the Duckworth Lewis method after rain interrupted play.
Rudra Pratap Singh, selected to the Indian ODI squad for the Zimbabwe tri-series, got the opening pair-- KSCA captain Barrington Rowland and Gaurav Dhiman-- out cheaply to rule out an explosive start.
The KSCA batsmen then showed little fight as they pushed on to 117 in 17 overs.
28-year-old Balachandra Akhil was their highest scorer with 25 runs from 20 balls.
KSCA began their defense with a wicket off the first ball as Gujarat batsman Niraj Patel was run out by Vinay Kumar.
But Raina (37) and Ojha consolidated the Air India innings with a 95-run stand in 11.5 overs.
The batsmen though made heavy weather of the target after Raina's wicket on 95 as Sridharan Sriram and Ojha were out with only four runs remaining for victory.
Sudheendra Shinde then scored the winning runs as Air India lifted the Bradman Cup.
