Uttar Pradesh won the Vijay Merchant Trophy (under-16) knock out tournament at the Eden Gardens on Monday. The three day final against Delhi ended in a draw but UP, having taken a first innings lead of 82 runs, were declared winners.

In fact, UP were on course for an outright win early on the final day. Opener Pritipal Singh was run out for one and then Vishal Francis bowled the other opener Shikhar Dhawan for 27 and had Niraj Sharma leg before for six. Delhi were 40 for three at this stage.

But a fourth wicket partnership between Kuldeep Rawat and Himanshu Mehta thwarted UP's victory bid. The two added 150 runs before Mehta was stumped by Md Amir off Praveen Gupta for 76. He faced 149 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes. The stand was broken just before tea and by this time, Delhi had made the match safe.

Rawat and Abhishek Nag (19) then added 42 runs for the fifth wicket and the match was called off the moment Rawat got his century. For his unbeaten 100, Rawat batted 254 minutes, faced 212 balls and hit eleven fours and two sixes. Delhi were 245 for five off 86.3 overs when the match ended.

© CricInfo