Pushkar Sharma shines again at the Cosmopolitan Shield’18 taking Shivaji Park Youngsters into the Semis

Pushkar Sharma, Skipper of Shivaji Park Youngsters (SPY) has made the Cosmopolitan Shield 2018-19 his own – either Batting, or Bowling, or most of the times, performing in both. It is his good form in this competitive Tournament which features the top 128 Teams from across the City, that his Team has stormed into the Top 4. Not to mention his Captaincy which has been impressive too, even during all the adversities faced.

SPY won the Toss against John Bright Cricket Club at Cross Maidan, CST & elected to field first in the Quarter Final Match played today.

John Bright CC got off to a very good start with the scorecard reading 125/1 after 27 Overs. They were looking good for a score in the range of 250 in the allotted 45 Overs. Divendu Shekhar and Prateek Patle scored 57 and 45 respectively.

That they were finally restricted to 199 in 42.1 Overs, credit goes to exceptional bowling by Yash Singh who took 4 wickets for 33 runs in 8.1 overs (2 Maidens). He had good company in Rahul Ratnaparkhi (9-0-33-3) and Pushkar (9-0-42-1). Anand Kumbhar also sent down 4 economical overs at 3.75 apiece.

Opening the Innings during the Chase, Pushkar cruised to 87*off 78 Balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes. At number 3, Rupen Chaurasiya turned out to be the ideal ally for him by scoring 45 Runs off 55 balls in a partnership of 89. Dashrat Chavan (34 off 39) also added 71 with Pushkar as SPY won the match with dominance.

Vedant Patil with figures of 7-0-26-2 tried to provide some resistance, but SPY scored 202 with 12.1 overs to spare, thus winning easily by 8 wickets.

Earlier, in the Pre-quater match against Superstar SC, Pushkar, who is employed at IndiaFirst Life Insurance and is an integral part of their Corporate Cricket Team, had shone with the ball taking 3 wickets while sending down 9 economical overs at a rate of 2.89 Runs. Along with him, Pacer Anand Kumbhar (3/25) and Chandan Gaud (4-0-8-1) ensured that they restricted the strong Batting line-up to a modest 137 in 31.3 overs. Chasing the target in the allotted 45 Overs, SPY were down and out at 20/6, before a magnificent rearguard action from Vignesh Kharge with a great Innings of 65 n.o., ably supported by Rupen Chaurasiya (25) took them home. Pushkar’s captaincy in the Match was also hailed for the various crucial decision makings.

SPY is slated to play the Semi-final on 30th of December.

Pushkar Sharma so far has 218 runs in 4 matches with 2 fifties at an average of 109.00