A barbaric hundred: Akhil Herwadkar scores a 54 ball 101 leading Payyade S.C to a win in the 68th Salar Jung Tournament

The Islam Gymkhana Ground at Marine Lines witnessed a great perfomance by the Payyade  Sports Club Boys as they whitewashed the opposition with their fearless bowling and batting. Winning the toss, Payyade elected to bowl on a neutral track which was favoring both turn for the bowlers & bounce for the batsman to score runs.

Made to bat first, Apollo Cricket Club did a fairly good job of posting 159/5 in 20 overs on the board which is always a competitive if not a big score to defend. The Payyade bowlers conceded 26 extras which helped Apollo cross 150+ or they could have been restricted to 125-130. Shubham Kamat at no.7 played an aggressive 41* off 26 along with Sairaj Sangle who remained unbeaten on 27* off 24balls to push their team total to a respectable 159. The top order crumbled but it was their middle-order batsman who did the job. Spinner Badree Alam & Atif Attarwala took a wicket each while there were 3 run-outs in their fall of 5wkts

Chasing 160 at exact 8 runs per over was not the easiest of jobs for Payyade but their left-handed opener Akhil Herwadkar smashed a 54 ball 101*to steer his team to a comfortable win. Left-handed Akhil did what Warner usually does for Australia on regular basis as he smashed 12 fours & 5big sixes to enthrall his team mates & the spectators. His opening partner Eknath Kerkar also did a great job smashing an unbeaten half century (53* off 31balls) & stitching a match winning partnership with Akhil.

Payyade Sports Club won the match by 10wkts & Akhil ‘s knock was the highlight of the match. Cricketgraph congratulates the whole team as well as both the openers for putting up a great show. Looking at their current form, dangerous opener Akhil & the whole team are certainly to look out for in the coming matches of the tournament.