Fortunes take U-turn as DSP gets knocked out of Architect T20
After their 2nd consecutive losses in Architect T20, DSP has been knocked out of the tournament. They wouldn’t have imagined this at the start of super 8s round as they entered super 8s with 100% win record. “Indeed we never thought that we will get knocked out in this fashion. We had good momentum when we entered into super 8s. We failed to deliver as a unit in Batting as well as bowling. We scored around 130 in both matches of super 8s. That wasn’t a great total but bowlers couldn’t defend the totals when we batted first,” said Krishna Panchal who is an all-rounder of DSP team.
DSP were placed in group C in the beginning of tournament with two other teams. They played their opening game against STUP Supersonics and won by 4 wickets. They restricted supersonics for 119 with Ninad Mhaskar taking 4 wickets. This target was chased down easily by DSP batsmen with 3 overs to spare. In next game they were up against Mott macdonald. Batting first, Mott macdonald scored 146 in 20 overs. Though target was little difficult, DSP had troubles as they chased it down in 18.2 overs with Gaurav Mistry scoring undefeated 58 in just 32 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes.
They topped the group with 2 wins in 2 matches and entered into super 8s. However fortunes took a U-turn as they lost both matches in super 8s and eventually got knocked out of the tournament. “We played against Sankalpan which is one of the strong teams and then we were up against Malik Architecture who are the favorites to win the tournament. We couldn’t even bat for complete 20 overs in both the matches. I think that was the key reason for our failure in super 8s,” said Krishna Panchal.
DSP couldn’t take the advantage after winning the toss against Sankalpan. They opted to field first and allowed Sankalpan to score 149 in 20 overs. Sankalpan had a bowling attack which meant chasing 150 was not an easy task. At one stage they were 107/4 in 12.3 overs when it looked like they can chase it down. But Sankalpan bowlers strike back restricting them to 132.
The defeat against Sankalpan meant that DSP had to win by huge margin against Malik Architect to make through to semi final. Malik Architect put DSP to bat after winning the toss. DSP had a good opportunity to put up a big score. But Malik Architect’s bowlers Sachin Bhosale and Kanish Patel bowled extremely well in tandem with Kanish taking 3 and Sachin taking 4 wickets. DSP could put up only 125 on board which was never a par score. It was a cake walk for Malik Architecture as they chased it down in 16 overs and won by 6 wickets.
DSP showed good promise earlier in tournament but they need to perform well under pressure and win the key moments in match to go up the ladder in tournament. Having learnt this lesson, DSP will be looking to take a U-turn and get back on winning track again.