A collective team performance helps Larsen and Toubro win the finals of the Indian Airlines T-20 Cricket Tournament

Organised by– Indian Airlines Sthaniya Lokadhikar Samiti in the memory of Shri Balasaheb Thakare.

The BPCL Gymkhana ground witnessed an exciting and tough finals between L&T & Air India on 6th April 2017. It was a pitch which was slightly tilted towards the bowlers but Air India won the toss & elected to bat first to make a big total on the board.

Batting first, the good bowling by L&t restricted Air India to only 109/6 in 20 overs. Akshay sawant & Sandesh Kawale were the pick of the batsman scoring 20 off 25 & 20 off 28 respectively. B.M mudaliar later chipped in with a 11ball 14 to push the Air India total to 109/6 in 20 overs. Pace spearhead Shashank Tomar of L&T bowled exceptionally well and returned with bowling figures of 4-0-14-2 including a big wicket in the first over itself. Bhagwan Sanap 4-0-18-1 and Abhimanyu Singh 4-0-21-1 kept a check on their run scoring on a wicket which was difficult to bat on due to its variable pace and bounce.

A target of 110 runs in a modern T20 format sounds easy but the underprepared wicket made it difficult. Abhimanyu Singh gave L&T a flying start in a low scoring run chase by scoring a quickfire 20 off just 15 balls which included 4 boundaries. Teamscore was at a healthy 24/0 in 3 overs at one stage but two quick wickets put L&T on the back foot. L&T then played cautiously and most crucial partnership of 51 runs between Ajith Nair(18 of 15 balls) and Ajinkya Parte (45 of 51 balls) was established which ensured the path towards victory. Quick wickets in the later part of the innings created some worries but L&T crossed the victory line by 4 wickets and 7 balls to spare.

From Air india medium fast bowler Abhishek patil was the wrecker in chief who returned with bowling figures of 3.5-0-26-3

Highlight of the match from L&T was Ajinkya Parte’s match winning innings and Shashank Tomar’s bowling. Ajinkya Parte was awarded with the Man of Match trophy and Jagdish Sorkhade (Captain) was awarded with Man of the Series Trophy. Cricketgraph congratulates the whole team for their finals victory & wishes them all the luck for a great future ahead.