ToI clinch cliff-hanger via bowl-out

Dhande’s heroics in vain

It was enthralling to say the least, not only for both the competing teams but also for the unbiased crowd present at the Ajni ground to witness Pool ‘B’ league match of the 12th Orange City Hospital Cup Inter-Press Invitational Twenty20 Cricket Tournament. In the battle of nerves as it turned out in the end, Times of India (ToI) did slightly better to keep their cool and clinch a cliff-hanger edging past Lokmat 2-1 via bowl-out after the match was dramatically tied.
With the full quota of 20 overs-per-side failing to give any result, the fate of the match was decided with the help of cricket’s version of penalty shoot out, which happened to be the first bowl-out of the tournament. The score was levelled 1-1 in the first five tries by both teams. Nitin Pataria did it for Lokmat while Suraj Nair made ToI breathe easy.
It went to sudden death where Pataria failed and the hero, Pawan Dhande, too missed. In the end Sandeep Dabhekar turned out to be the unlikely hero for ToI by winning the edge-of-the-seat encounter.
Defending the target of 154 runs, ToI made regular inroads with Dabhekar removing Lokmat’s last match hero Pataria and Manish Charpe in quick succession.
Dhande though downed his anchor and looked determined. But ToI were sighting win at the end of the twelfth over with the scorecard showing 64-8. Dhande then took over and with some ordinary fielding and dropped catches by ToI fielders, Lokmat forced their way into a position where they even contemplated victory.
With 21 needed to win off the last over, bowled by Faisal Qamar, Dhande slammed a boundary and two sixes, the latter six off the last ball to make it a tie. Dhande’s unbeaten 74-run knock came off just 39 balls and consisted of five fours and six sixes. Earlier, Yogesh Banait’s blazing 40-ball 65 guided ToI to 153 all out in 19.4 overs. Khodke damaged ToI’s lower half scalping five wickets for 33 runs in his four overs.

Tarun Bharat too record win

In another match, Tarun Bharat recorded a 26-run win over Dainik Bhaskar at Dr Ambedkar College ground.
Aided by fine contributions from Ravi Daff (45; 34b, 4x5) and Vikas Barokar (49; 34b, 4x5) Tarun Bharat piled up 166 for five in 20 overs.
Things looked good for Bhaskar with Sanjeev Sharma (20; 21b 4x2) and Sujan Masid (39; 36b, 4x4) at the middle. The steadily increasing asking rate though took toll on them and once both departed, the rest fell like a pack of cards. Bhaskar were bundled out for 140 all out with ten balls to spare. Appa Kawale (3-24) was the pick of Tarun Bharat bowlers.
Saturday’s fixture: The Hitavada vs Sakal at Dr Ambedkar College ground, Deekshabhoomi; Loksatta vs Punyanagari at Ajni. Matches start at 9.00 am.

(Report Courtesy The Hitavada)

Pics by Rajesh Tickley and The Hitavada