Vaibhav Patil (118), Rahul Yadav (51) Kunal Nikam (4wkts)& Skipper Kawaldeep(4wkts) steer HT Media to a Quarters win in the Times Shield ‘18

Played at the New Hind Stadium, it was now time for the crucial quarter finals between the consistent HT media and the promising JSW where in JSW won the toss and elected to bowl first with an aim of restricting HT Media to a low total.

Little did they knew about the strength and depth of HT Media’s batting line up. Despite their openers failing to give a flying start, it was their dependable & solid batsman Vaibhav Patil at no.3 who took on the responsibility on his shoulders to help his team reach a decent total. Vaibhav’s controlled aggression led him to score a fantastic 118 off mere 97balls which included 15fours and 2 sixes. Vaibhav also got excellent support from Rahul Yadav who scored a quick 49ball 51 taking their team total to 230/10 in 37.4 overs. From ISW, it was Omkar, Chirag and Ishan bagging 2wkts each.

Defending a not so big total of 213, Kunal Nikam and skipper Kawaldeep took the care of the bowling department taking 4wkts each.  Skipper Kawaldeep’s excerpts to Cricketgraph “Match was underway with ISW getting off to a flying start with 2 overs 20runs,  then third over I got an opener bowled and since then there was a partnership building between me and Kunal, I took the ball  & it was reverse swinging & we struck in almost every over’

Both the bowlers bowled an excellent spell bowling in the right areas which helped them restrict JSW to just 203runs all out. Kawaldeep’s bowling figures read 4/55 while Kunal Nikam came up with bowling figures of 4/30.

It was a yet another dominating win for HT Media where in the entire team once again gave their best efforts to win the game. Skipper Kawaldeep further added: Batting wise, Vaibhav Patil played a crucial innings since we lost two quick wickets. He and Rahul stabilized the innings and a crucial partnership was stitched between them. Hadn’t he scored we wouldn’t have reached the total, credit to his batting mainly and then our bowling which helped us reach the semis now!”

CRICKETGRAPH