For a teen who smashed 4 double hundreds in Giles Shield a few years back, a lot of pressure and expectations were put on him at an early age. That sudden pressure on him certainly affected his game, he went through some niggles, scored some runs in between then again lost form but now coming back to 2019, he looks a matured and solid version of his earlier self. Though he looked quite mature this time, he took on the bowlers with the same elegance he showed in 2016-17.
Jolly Cricketers after being put to bat first at Islam Gymkhana Ground were all out for 118/10 in 34.3 overs. Leg-break bowler Bharat Solanki with 4/33 and Suraj Singh with 3/31 were the pick of the lot for New Hind CC.
New Hind CC in reply displayed their batting power with openers Vedprakash Jaiswal hitting 102* off 59 balls (11 fours & 4 sixes) while he got excellent support from Pratik Patil who scored an equally thrilling knock of 87 runs in 55 balls (9 fours, 5 sixes). Not only did Vedprakash scored the fastest ton across all divisions so far this year, it was also the highest opening stand for 2019 Kanga League across all divisions.
After failing in F Division Kanga last year while missing out on a place in the U19 Mumbai Squad for Vinood Mankad, Vedprakash certainly had a lot to prove and with this ton, he has certainly signaled his arrival for the upcoming season in style.
Result-New Hind CC won the match on 1st innings lead.
The match between Young Mohammedan Cricket Club and Bhatnagar Sports & Cultural Foundation was held in Khar Gymkhana on Wednesday, 2nd October.Bhatnagar sports won the toss and elected to bowl first.
On a decent pitch, The right handed opening duo of Musheerahmed khan and Nikhil Madas, laid a decent foundation for the Young Mohammedan club, Musheer Khan scored a well nurtured innings of 56 runs off 99 balls.
The middle order also displayed their prowess but the highlight of the whole innings was the blitzkrieg innings of 73 off just 49 balls by right hand lower middle order batsman, Kadir Patel. With his efforts, they reached a formidable score of 250/7 giving themselves an opportunity to fetch a win.
For the Bhatnagar foundation, right arm pace bowler Vishwajit Thakur registered 4 dismissals under his name giving away 53 runs. Opening for Bhatnagar Foundation, left handed Harsh Rane and right handed Aditya
Dev had a solid opening stand of 74 runs, the former scored a solid 68 runs off 102 holding one end strong.
They lost only 3 wickets. For Mohammedan Cricket Club, Slow-left arm bowler Musheer Khan picked up couple of wickets.
Result- The match ended in a draw.
The match between Parel Sporting Club and Regal Cricket Club was held in Oct, Karnataka sporting association, Cross maidan on 2nd october. Regal Cricket Club won the toss and elected to field first.
With both the openers dismissed for duck, right-handed batsman No.3 batsman Karan Sonavale played a sensible knock of 78 off 130 deliveries and constructed the innings. With some light efforts from the middle and lower order Parel Sporting Club declared at the score of 181 losing 9 wickets, they were eying for a win.
With the ball, slow left-arm bowler Bharat Meher picked 4 crucial wickets. For Regal, their opening partnership with the bat looked promising but after the dismissal of the openers, there wasn’t much to highlight. They lost 5 wickets in 34 overs and were at 67/5 at the end of the play. Slow left-arm bowler Vijaykumar Gohil successfully picked up 3 wickets and Karan Sonavale picked up couple of wickets too. To focus on cricket, Karan recently left his job at ICICI while in last one year he has scored 80+ six times across different tournaments.
Result-The match ended up in a draw.
Div-A
United Cricketers team opting to bat first on their homeground at Cross Maidan rattled the Ghatkoper Jolly Gymkhana’s batting line up restricting them to 126 runs all out in 40.1 overs. Left arm spinner Sandeep Pawar was the pick of the bowlers extracting the best from the cross maidan track to come up with amazing bowling figures of 8/49 in 16.1 overs. Sandeep proved to be effective right from the beginning not only generating decent amount of turn but also maintaining a tight line and length.
United Cricketers in reply declared their innings on 128/5 in 41 overs with Darshan Kamthe (40) and Amey Lad (30) lending some support at the middle order helping their team win on 1st innings lead.
After being put to bat first by CCI Skipper Paul Valthaty, the promising line up of Karnatak Sporting Association found it difficult to dominate on CCI’s own den as medium fast bowler Harshal Soni ran through their batting line up with a sensational spell of 8/37 in 13.3 overs and 2 maidens. With a best score of just 19* by Vaibhav Mali, Harshal certainly did not allow any batsman to open their arms freely coming up with wickets at crucial junctures.
CCI on the other hand surpassed the 1st innings trail of Karnatak team declaring their innings at 107/7 in 42 overs. Young off-spinner Tanush Kotian raised eyes taking big wickets of senior players like Sujit Nayak, Vinit Indulkar and Ajinkya Patil. Tanush was consistent as well as impressive with his spin coming up with 5/34 in 11 overs with 4 maidens.
CCI won the match on 1st innings while it was a bowler’s day with one bowler standing out from both the teams.
Harshal Soni speaking with Cricketgraph said “I bowled throughout the first session from one end, wicket was decent comparatively, had an even converting of grass, was a bit damp at the start but went on to be a good wicket and nice carry thru to keeper, other one odd ball staying low sometimes. I started off pretty well, I was on the mark from first ball itself, was able to swing the ball both way. I am usually an outswiing bowler but i was getting the ball to move in as well, so that helped in the spell using short balls in between. I was mostly trying to get the ball in the right areas and was try to get the move of the wicket and the grass on it help me as well for the same as I bowled throughout the first session. I also felt that was kind of my fitness being tested but i was just thinking one ball at a time & what I have to do the next ball & that’s how i was able to push myself throughout the spell”
Sind Sports Club after being put to bat first at the PJ Hindu Gymkhana dominated the Victory CC bowlers upfront notching up 280/6 dec in 65.4 overs. Left-handed batsman Jaideep Pardeshi coming at no.3 scored a brilliant 104 off 134 balls (14 fours, 2 sixes) while he got excellent support from Chinmay Sutar with whom he stitched a 139 run stand for the 4th wicket. Chinmay coming at no.5 scored an unbeaten 102* off 140 balls as both the batsman displayed some solid red ball cricket pushing the team towards a healthy total.
Victory CC just got 15 overs to bat before the match ended in a draw with Victory CC’s scoreboard reading 46/2 in 15 overs.
The match did not obtain any results but we got to see some really solid hundreds by the experienced Jaideep Pardeshi and the promising Chinmay Sutar.
Star CC after being put to bat first at Sydenham College, Oval Maidan did not have a single batsman being able to score in two digits. Such was the quality of attack by the Marwari CC bowlers, the batters found it really difficult to get going. Right arm medium fast bowler Nirbhay Kahar was simply sensationalin his spell of 7/21 where he single eliminated the entire top to middle order with his fiery line and length. It took only 8 overs for Nirbay to come up with a 7wkt haul while spinner Amaan Shaikh took 2wkts without conceding a single run in 1.4 overs.
Courtesy to left arm spinner Amit Kanaoujiya’s 5/35 in 10.1 overs, Marwari CC also received a tough fight by the Star CC bowlers but they crossed the 1st innings trail declaring their innings at 84/9 in 32.5 overs.
Star CC in 2nd innings were again bundled out for 67 runs with left arm spinner Soham Mewada picking up 5/21 in 7 overs. Marwari CC won the match on 1st innings lead while it was a match purely dominated by bowlers with as many as 3 bowlers coming up with 5wkt hauls.
A hundred in a kanga is a very special achievement for a batsman as it’s a known fact that it’s a tournament where bowlers dominate on hostile tracks & when you score a hundred that too vs a quality bowling attack, it certainly stamps your presence in the tournament. Payyade Sports Club after batting first on National CC, Cross Maidan lost their opener Hersh Tank on the very 1st ball however, the momentum did shift with opener Akhil Herwadkar (75 off 129) and Praful Waghela (28 off 76) steadying the ship again.
Coming in at no.4, 28yr old Prayag Bhati went all guns blazing as he took on bowlers with pure dominance. Prayag went on to score a brutal 129* coming in mere 93 balls with a strike of close to 140 which included 14 fours and 5 sixes.
National CC in reply batted for 27 overs with scoreboard reading 87/5 at the end of the game’s play where the match ended in a draw. From the bowlers, left arm pacer Royston Dias with 3/24 was the pick of the lot. The score of 129* by Prayag so far is the highest across all divisions in the Kanga League’19
Every year you come across some beautiful tales in Kanga Cricket where players come up with exceptional performances but what we unearthed yesterday was a next level dedication by a player who got injured in the match but still kept on playing.
Kandivali Cricket Association after being put to bat first at Dadkar Maidan, Matunga Gymkhana were all out for 106/10 in 34.3 overs but what unfolded in between their innings was something inspiring! Left-arm spinner Yogesh Dicholkar who was in a wonderful flow with the ball taking 4 of the top 5 top wickets fractured his right hand index finger while taking a sharp caught and bowled. That wicket was his 5th but he had to go to hospital during the lunch time. The X-ray revealed a half cm crack in his finger but his passion for cricket forced him to come back on the field after lunch and come up with another 4 wkts in what turned out to an awe-inspiring spell of 9/33 in 12.2 overs with 4 maidens. In the next 4 wickets he took, one of them was again a sharp caught and bowled which he took with his left hand!
Matunga Gymkhana in reply chased down the 1st innings trail and won the match on 1st innings lead. They declared their innings on 127/9 in 35 overs with most of the batsman chipping in with 10’s and 20’s.
It was a match which will probably go down as one of the inspiring matches in the years to come for Matunga Gymkhana where the experienced campaigner Yogesh fought with the odds to help his team dominate in the match. 9/33 by Yogesh are also the best bowling figures for far across all divisions while Yogesh has been a table topper amongst the highest wicket-takers in Kanga since many years.
After a tough opening game vs Chattisgarh where despite the Mumbai batters putting up a strong performance lost the match by 5 wkts, it was a match where they had to fightback vs Saurashtra.
Saurashtra after being put to bat first managed to muster a total of 245/9 in 50 overs. All-rounder Shams Mulani was the pick of the bowlers from Mumbai taking 3/49 in 10 overs. Shams continued his good form from the 1st match where he took 3/38 which were the best bowling figures from Mumbai bowlers.
Chasing a steep total of 246, Mumbai were off to a shaky start with opener Jay Bista & no.3 batsman Siddhesh Lad falling early. However, it was the experienced duo of Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav stitching a match winning 101 run stand for the 3rd wicket. Shreyas scored 73 off 82 balls (8 fours, 2 sixes) steadying the ship for Mumbai while Suryakumar made life difficult for the bowlers hitting a strokeful 85* off 71 balls laced with 9 boundaries & 3 sixes. Suryakumar toiled with the bowlers mindset playing some 360* shots while he was ably supported by Shubham Ranjane who remained unbeaten on 45* off 57 balls at no 7.
Mumbai team eventually chased down the score in 48 overs winning the match by 5 wkts on the back of some solid fifties by Suryakumar & Shreyas who scored back to back half centuries to begin the season on a positive note.