Jharkhand’s U-16 colts at a preparatory camp at Jamshedpur’s Keenan Stadium before the tourney.

Jamshedpur, Jan. 14: The boys from the state salvaged some pride by finishing runners-up in the U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy, the finals of which concluded in Nagpur yesterday.

Jharkhand, which has had a particularly bad run in BCCI organised tournaments throughout the 2011-2012 season, gave state cricket officials something to smile about, thrashing Rajasthan and Delhi in the run up to the finals.

The state, which had clinched the prestigious title in 2008 by pulling off an 82-run win over Vidarbha in Ahmedabad, however, faltered against Uttar Pradesh (UP) this time around in the final by conceding a first innings lead.

The UP outfit, which maintained a vice-like-grip throughout the match, gave the Virat Singh-led state team nothing to play with.

Jharkhand, though, had its chance of surpassing UP’s first innings total of 260 in the match. The state’s famed batting unit, which had perform-ed well throughout the tourney, failed to click when it mattered the most, folding up for 183 and thus conceding a 77-run lead in the process that proved decisive in the end.

Sunny Singh came good with the ball during Jharkhand’s first innings bowling stint by picking up four wickets. Sunny was ably supported by Prem Kumar and Surendra Singh, who claimed three and two scalps respectively, to prevent UP from posting a mammoth first innings score. Virat shone with the willow during the state’s reply essaying a well earned 67. However, with none of the other players being able to come up with substantial contributions, Virat’s knock was not enough to prevent the state from falling short of UP’s first innings total.

The UP outfit scored a massive 449 for 7 in their second innings in a little under 100 overs, with R.S.B.S. Rawat piling on Jharkhand’s agonies with a polished 151.

M.M. Raza came good with the bat too scoring a classy 115. . Sona Singh took four wickets for the state.

Interestingly, the state U-22 and U-19 Ranji outfits had not been able to make it to even the knockout stages of the tourney.