Mahendra Patil dismantles Reliance team by grabbing 6 wickets for PT academy in Samata Trophy

Two strong teams of group B faced each other in the ongoing Samata Friendship Trophy 2017, played at Taloja cricket ground. Pravin Tambe Cricket Academy from Mulund locked horns with the imposing Reliance team. Reliance team batted first and they seemed to be in top gear from the first over itself. Openers got off to a solid start as the ball was hit to all corners of the ground. PT academy’s offie, Deepak Tolani provided the first breakthrough with a ball which skidded off to knock  Parikshit Tripathi’s  off stump. Break throughs are usually supposed to slow the pace of the game however this breakthrough went in favour of Reliance. One down batsman, Utsav Berangi who scored 54 off just 33 balls accelerated the innings with 6 sixes and 1 four and Relaince at one stage looked poised for a total in excess of 180.

The witty skipper of PT Academy, Tausif khan sensing trouble ,bought in his trusted lieutenant Mahendra Patil also known as “Mesmerising Mendis”. From that point onwards it was all Mahendra Patil’s show and not a single Reliance batsman could read Patil’s fingers.  At one stage Patil was on a hat-trick but he would be happy to settle with 6 Reliance wickets against his name. Patil’s bowling was so accurate that most of his victims were clean bowled.

PT academy did a fantastic job of restricting Reliance’s innings to 149.

Chasing a target of 150 can at times becomes tricky however PT academy batsmen batted like professionals playing the ball at its merit. Opener batsman, Ram Singh displayed both class and aggression in his innings of 46 off 32 balls. He was ably supported by Yash Parab who scored 49 off 44 balls. In the end PT academy comfortably chased 150 with 2 overs to spare.

The day belonged to Mahendra Patil and he was rightly adjudged Man of the Match for his spell of 4 overs – 15 runs and 6 wickets.