IndiaFirst Life Insurance storms into the Quarter-finals of CCD Champions Trophy’20 at the back of their exceptional bowling perfomance & skipper Ajish’s 79

IndiaFirst Life Insurance won their last league Match against All Star XI, thereby topping their Group with all 3 wins and marching into the Quarters of the prestigious CCD Champions Trophy 2020. The Match was played at the All Saints Cricket Ground, All Saints School, Bhiwandi.

After winning the toss, IndiaFirst elected to bat on what seemed to be a good pitch. Israr Shaikh provided him Team an explosive start by thumping 20 runs off the 2nd Over of the Match. He scored 21 off 9 balls (2 Fours & 2 Sixes). But it was the other opener, Ajish Abdul Rehman who held one end up. Battling a broken finger and a hamstring injury that he had picked up during their last Match, he scored a magnificent 79 off just 64 balls (14 Fours) before unfortunately getting Run Out in the penultimate Over. Rohit Shetty scored 27 in a partnership of 94 with his captain. For All Star XI, Shailam Borkar was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 4-0-27-1. IndiaFirst scored 167 in their allotted 20 Overs.

All Star started their chase rather shakily with Dharamendra Gupta picking up 2 wickets in the first Over of the Innings. He ended up with figures of 4-0-23-2. Sanket Vaidya (43) and Rajhans Shere (29) provided some resistance. Babli Sharma (4-0-14-2) was the pick of the bowlers with some intelligent Off-spin bowling, varying his place and flight. Swaminathan GK finished the proceedings with an excellent Hat-trick and a spell of 3-015-3. Ajish was declared the Man of the Match.

Earlier, in their 2nd league Match, IndiaFirst Life had beaten Reliance RCP Cricket Club by 33 Runs after setting a target of 150. There too, Ajish had top-scored with 45 before Retiring Hurt due to a hamstring injury. For Reliance, Mangesh Makde’s uneaten 56 went in vain. For IndiaFirst, Anil Kumar, Vikash Sharma and Babli Sharma bowled pretty tight spells. But it was Pushkar Sharma, for his all-round performance (23 & 4-0-13-2), who won the Man of the Match award. In their first league Match, IndiaFirst had beaten VCC Tara by 7 Wickets with 6 Overs to spare. They had got VCC all out for 88, after them being 34 for no loss after 3.3 Overs. Dharamendra and Sagar Nehete bowled pretty tight spells. Akshay Gaikwad (28 n.o.) and Pushkar (20) found the chase easy. Babli was adjudged the Man of the Match for his excellent bowling performance (4-0-15-3).

With the latest Win, IndiaFirst Life were scheduled to play NK XI in the Quarter-finals.