Parag helps his team win while Hashir Dafedar & Salman Khan give their best in the Young Comrade Shield Tournament
Islam Gymkhana & Parkophene Cricket Club faced each other for a crucial encounter at the D.P.Z Ground, Matunga in Mumbai. Team Parkophene won the toss & elected to bat first and make the most of the pitch conditions to post a big total on the board.
Parkophene openers gave a good start with both the batsman Jiniv Joshi & Swapnil Salvi scoring 37 (37) & 33(13) respectively. No.3 and no.4 batsman lost their wickets early but Parag Khanapurkar came in and scored a fluent 85 off just 87 balls. Parag smashed 11 fours & 2 sixes and also stitched a good partnership with Prasad Pawar who scored a gutsy 62 off 76 balls (9 fours). Right arm spinner Salman Khan bowled an excellent spell & took a five wicket haul. Salman Khan succeeded in troubling the batman unlike the other bowlers & came up with a great bowling spell of 5/136 in 27 overs. Jay Dave also bowled well supporting him with 2/30 in his 7 overs. Team Parkophene was all out for 343 in 66 overs and gave a competitive target to chase.
Chasing 344, as people say ‘Some Talents are breed & nurtured in the same house” as Khizer Dafedar’s brother Hashir Dafedar also came up with a great century scoring a fighting knock of 113 off 170 balls. Right handed Hashir smashed 15 fours in his classy knock but he lacked strong support from the other end where Tabish Ansari, Abdul Aziz & Sanket Jadhav were the only one who scored 44, 40 & 39 respectively. As Hashir shared with Cricketgraph ‘the pitch was tough to bat on and they had lost 3 wkts for only 9 runs, however Hashir & Aziz stitched a 108 run partnership but that was not enough. Add to it, their spinner Rajesh Powar (who has represented India ‘A’) was bowling really well & hardly allowed any batsman to play a cover drive. Sufyan Rehmani & Parag were also bowling well containing the batsman and also taking wickets in tandem. Hashir was out on 94 the last time & felt the nervous 90’s but he went on to complete a century though in a losing cause.
It was an amazing job by the bowlers and eventually Islam Gymkhana managed to reach 257/8 in 70 overs handing over a victory by 86 runs to Team Parkophene. It was a good match overall where players gave their best & let’s wish the good form of everybody continues for a long long time.