Wily Pravin Tambe sizzles with a 6for while Harmeet sweats it out with an 8wkt haul in the semis of Times Shield ‘18

Played at the Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana, DY Patil B and Air India Sports Club took on each other for the all important semi finals of the Times Shield Tourament where in DY Patil batted first on a track which had assistance more for the bowlers.

Batting first DY Patil notched up a decent total of 290/10 in 68.4 overs even though they have had tendency to score more batting first. The top order and the middle order chipped in with good starts with Hardik Tamore(51), Kevin Almeida(51) and Siddarth Chitnis(56*) chipping in with crucial fifties. Hardik batted in a solid way while Kevin seemed to be getting back to his usual self with his flawless batting. All-rounder Siddarth Chitnis also came good smashing 4fours and 3sixes to push the team total to almost 300. From the bowlers, the one bowler who grinded hard and bowled a marathon spell was their star spinner Harmeet Singh who came up with a superlative 8wkt haul taking 8/129 in 29.4 overs. Harmeet looked really good and made full use of the wicket had some turn for the spinners.

Defending a moderate total of 291, if Air India had Harmeet, then DY Patil had their most experienced wild card Pravin Tambe who is on fire with some aggressive cricket. Pravin once again shut down all the critics and showed who is the boss when it comes to quality leg break spinners in India. The veteran came up with 6/115 in 33 overs which played a major role in restricting Air India to 253all out in 73.4 overs. Left arm spinner Karsh Kothari also assisted tambe well scalping 3wkts. From Air India, Rohit Prakash and Sandeep Sawaal smashed fifties while Harmeet scored an unbeaten 34*.

DY Patil cruise to the finals on the back of their good batting and PT’s excellent bowling.

CRICKETGRAPH