Opener Varun Lavande scores his 2nd ton in the Mahindra Shield Tournament as he proves his mettle with the bat!
Played at the Dadar Parsi Colony SC at the Dadkar Maidan, it was a match between two talented teams namely Dattu Phadkar XI and Khandu Rangnekar XI where in Dattu Phadkar boys won the toss and elected to bat first as the rains are over and the pitches may have become a little friendly towards the batsman.
Right handed opener Varun Lavande, who came just fresh from a 116 against Vijay Manjrekar XI a few weeks ago smashed yet another terrific ton to stamp his class with the bat. Opening the innings, Varun and Prangesh Kanpillewar gave a flying start while Varun continued his good start to score an elegant 141 off just 199 balls. Playing at a healthy strike rate of 70, Varun smashed 20 fours and kept the score card ticking to take his team to a big total. Santosh Naikude at no.3 also smashed a solid 58 off 169 deliveries. Right arm medium pacers Yash Kadam and Yashraj Joshi were the pick of the bowlers with 3wkts each. In reply, Khandu Rangnekar XI were restricted to just 136/10 in 43.4 overs due to some terrific bowling by the Phadkar boys. Left arm fast bowler Ninad Thakkur was the pick of the bowlers as he took 5/45 in 14overs (5maidens) along with some great support from Simon dubey who took 3/16 in 3 overs. Both the bowlers bowled consistently well in the right areas which eventually gave the batsman a hard time.
Khandu Rangnekar XI were given a follow on and gave a good comeback in their 2nd innings as they scored 224/8 in 94 overs till the end of the game’s play. Their perfomance was definitely better than their 1st innings as openers Akbar Hussain and Shoaib Khan (56 off 74b) gave an excellent fightback. Right-handed Akbar scored 71* off as many as 293balls. Akbar’s fighting knock of 293 balls was definitely commendable as he literally saved his team from a humiliating loss. The match ended in a draw due to Akbar’s resilience with the bat but it was definitely Varun’s 141, Akbar’s fighting 71 to Ninad’s 5wkt haul which remain the highlight performances of the match.
CRICKETGRAPH