Thursday, January 7, 2010

Centurion Lokhande pulverises Loksatta

The Hitavada win by 109 runs; Sakal start with a crushing victory







Pravin Lokhande slammed an unbeaten 70-ball 122 with the help of 14 boundaries and five 6s.










Garnished with a hurricane ton by Praveen Lokhande, The Hitavada dished out another dominant effort as the defending champions breezed past Loksatta by 109 runs in the 12th Orange City Hospital Cup Inter-Press Invitational Twenty20 Cricket Tournament at Dr Ambedkar College ground, Deekshabhoomi on Thursday.
Opting to bat first, The Hitavada lost opener Anupam Timothy in the third over with Loksatta’s Uday Rangnath drawing the first blood.
Lokhande joined the floor with Rahul Dixit (20; 24b) as the duo stitched a well-paced 58-run stand for the second wicket before the latter got out edging one off the bowling of Piyush Patil. Nikhil Dixit, who accompanied Lokhande after Rahul Dixit’s departure, played a second fiddle in the early part of his innings. Lokhande, meanwhile, continued his onslaught at one end. He unfurled the big strokes frequently not letting any bowler to settle down. He got to his century in the 18th over, also becoming the first man in the tournament to do so this year.
Lokhande belted as many as 14 boundaries and clobbered five towering sixes in his breath-taking unbeaten 122 which came off just 70 deliveries. As the innings approached its end, Nikhil Dixit (32; 22b, 4x1, 6x2) too shifted gears, his two big sixes stamping this. The violent batting by Lokhande-Dixit duo heaped a 93-run stand in just 54 deliveries as The Hitavada amassed 182 runs for the loss of four wickets in 20 overs.
Wickets at regular intervals hindered Loksatta’s run chase. Chasing over nine runs per over, Loksatta lost opener Amol Sultane, who skied one in the third delivery of their innings off the bowling of opponent skipper Susheem Kolay.
Uday Rangnath (20; 24b) tried to avoid the inevitable, but a couple of run outs—first courtesy lone brilliance by Lokhande and the other by Hitesh Limbachia and wicket-keeper Paritosh Pramanik—pushed Loksatta’s back to the wall. Rahul Dixit cleaned up the lower order registering figures of 2-0-4-3 as Loksatta were wrapped up for 73 runs in 16.3 overs. Lokhande was declared man of the match.
In the other match of the day played at Ajni ground, Sakal crushed Punyanagari by 93 runs.
Riding on Avishkar Deshmukh’s superb half century, Sakal posted 172 runs for three wickets in 20 overs. Deshmukh knocked a 46-ball 62 runs with the help of seven fours and two sixes. Balaji Iyer’s unbeaten 43 played a vital part as well.
In reply, Punyanagari put up a dismal batting performance and were bowled out for 79 runs in 14.1 overs.
After top-scoring with the bat, man of the match Deshmukh shone with the ball as well picking up three wickets for just eight runs in his 3.1 overs.
Naresh Shelke (3-25) cleaned up the Punyanagari tail.
The tournament is being organised by Sports Journalists’ Association of Nagpur (SJAN).
Friday’s fixtures: Tarun Bharat vs Dainik Bhaskar at Dr Ambedkar College ground, Deekshabhoomi; Lokmat vs Times of India at Ajni. Matches start at 9.00 am.



Report and pic courtesy The Hitavada

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