Ranjit Pillai & Rajesh Pingulkar help JSW clinch a victory against Viacom in the Masters Cup Tournament
JSW took on Viacom in a semi final game at the Vengsarkar Academy, Oval on Christmas eve – this being the first trophy round game for either side this season. In slightly damp and dewy conditions, Sachin from Viacom called correctly at the toss and had no hesitation in asking JSW to bat first, hoping his bowlers could extract some advantage from the conditions which were expected to level out by 10:00 am once the sun was fully overhead.
However both the openers from JSW belied this expectation as they rattled up 46 runs in the first 4 overs before Tauseef Khan was caught at the wicket. That brought in the talented Rajesh Pingulkar and what followed was mayhem as 75 runs were scored in the next 5 overs of which Pingulkar hammered 53 (24b, 11×4, 1 x 6) before being dismissed on the last ball before the drinks interval with the score on 121 on the board. The right handed pingulkar was outright entertaining & only dealt in boundaries. At that stage JSW looked set for a score in excess of 250. However excellent bowling by Atul Singh who was the leading bowler for Viacom, helped restore some normalcy while on the other side the JSW batting lost its momentum a little bit – compared to the first 10 overs – finally being bowled out for a score of 203. The target was a mammoth one but Viacom could afford to pat themselves for still pulling back the game at a time when Pingulkar and team looked like batting them out of the tournament.
The chase started in real earnest with Amol and Roshan firing on all cylinders for Viacom. The 2 openers played slam bang cricket scoring at better than a run a ball to reach 36 in 4 overs before Amol mistimed and popped one right back to the bowler. The next 2 partnerships each tried to build on the momentum and kept the run-rate at a steady 8 per over – however the man of the moment was again Pingulkar who took out number 2 and number 3 to leave Viacom reeling at 91/3 in the 13th over. From there on the chase while statistically possible was always going to be a massive task for the remaining batting order. Nothing exemplified this more than the bowling of Ranjit Pillai who triggered a mini collapse with 5 wickets in just 3 overs bowling his gentle breaks which cleaned up the entire middle & lower order. This was also the first 5 wicket hall of the season for any bowler in the Master’s Cup series and would have won him the man of the match award but given Pingulkar’s performance earlier in the morning along with his 2 crucial wickets, the umpires adjudicated in his favor.
Right Arm spinner Ranjit Pillai was particularly quite effective with the ball & hardly allowed any batsman to settle at the crease. Ranjit Pillai also succeeded in containing the batsman which played a very big role in their team’s victory. Ranjit pillai who wasn’t adjudged “man of the match” but his performance was no less than that.
JSW now proceed to take on Johnson & Johnson in the finals – and on current form this looks to be an exciting encounter.