Mafatlal holds nerve after Karan Nande’s 77 to seal the victory

In the knock-out game of the DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR CUP at RCF Sport Club , the Mafatlal appeared to be struggling to mount a defendable total in the first 5 overs of their innings, before Karan Nande did nothing short of detonating as 77 runs were piled up in the final fifteen. Karan Nande’s innings, as captain of the Mafatlal, not only pushed the Teleperformance to a total unimaginable with almost nine overs remaining, but appeared also to knock the stuffing out of the Teleperformance.

Player of the Match Karan Nande’s tournament’s-best knock of 77 off 49 balls, including thirteen fours and strike rate of 157.00. As captain he had witnessed Siddhartha depart after building a similar platform (massive partnership of 99 runs), and could not afford to do likewise. The cogs of Karan Nande’s brain could be seen almost visibly to be ticking over as he pondered ways of lifting the Mafatlal to higher ground.

Teleperformance captain sent the Mafatlal in to bat. Merely 2 for 44 from 4.4 overs, 3 for 143 from 13.4 overs and 4 for 162 from 15.4 overs, the Mafatlal were battling to put up a score that looked capable of being defended even if the surface offered some encouragement to spin. At the end of a summer of some frustrations for Karan Nande, he had delivered the kind of innings to underline the rare nature of his talent.

At 5 for 58 inside seven overs the Teleperformances’ chances of winning the game were all but gone. Prasad and Puneet struck twice as the Teleperformances’ collapsed from 58 for 5 to 75 all out in pursuit of 212. In the end, Mafatlal won by 136 runs.

“The other team won the toss and decided to field. It was a damp and soft wicket. Our opening batsman Armaan was runout in the third over. Then it was my turn, the 3rd down. And soon after, while we were scoring at a good rate, another opening batsman Harshad was out in the fifth over. Then Siddhartha was there, and we had a good partnership of 99 runs together. I was very focused, I was hitting the ball towards the boundary through the gaps. Run rate was good and we touched around 162 runs in 15-16 overs. After me, Onkar was also playing aggressively. In the second innings, opponents were at 3 for 58 and then Prasad Patil took 2 wickets in a same over. And it went well for us.” – Karan Nande said to Cricketgraph.