FIGHTING knocks by former Ranji Trophy skipper Shalabh Shrivastava and Anup Fulper went in vain as Vidarbha veterans lost high-scoring final of the West Zone Veterans T20 Cricket Tournament to Maharashtra by just four runs at Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Stadium in Nanded on Sunday. Put into bat, Maharashtra amassed 233-7 in stipulated 20 overs. Chasing the huge target, Vidarbha were within one stroke of a win but finished at 229-4. After Vidarbha opener Mangesh Samdurkar was out on first ball of the innings, in-form batters Shrivastava (86; 46b, 12x4, 1x6) and Fulper (57; 34b, 7x4, 1x6) added 145 for the second wicket in 12 overs before the former was cleaned up by Shaikh Sardar, the seventh bowler used by Maharashtra. Fulper, who got out stumped, and Parikshit Tripathi (22; 17b, 3x4) took the score to 171 in 15 overs.

 

Rahul Jadhav scored a quickfire unbeaten 35 from 13 balls that contained three hits to the fence and as many above it while wicketkeeper Vivek Naidu (14*; 10b, 3x4) hit three fours but that could not prevent a close Maharashtra win. For the winners, Mohan Badure took two wickets while Shaikh Sadique and Sardar picked one each. Earlier, Vidarbha’s decision to field first backfired as Maharashtra openers Khalid Zaman (75; 34b, 13x4, 3x6) and skipper Abhijit Kadam (20; 18b, 2x4) gave the team a good start adding 86 in just seven overs. Sardar (49; 25b, 2x4, 5x6), Gopal Gurkhude (39; 20b, 1x4, 4x4) and Niranjan Chavan (17; 6b, 1x4, 2x6) cut loose as the team piled a huge score. For Vidarbha, Shailendra Chaudhari (3-28) was the most successful bowler. The trio of Rahul Chikhalkar, Pritam Deoraj and Tripathi chipped in with one each. Incidentally, both Shrivastava, who played a match-winning knock of 69 runs off 47 balls and Fulper, who remained unbeaten on 62 runs were the architects of Vidarbha’s thumping win over Mumbai in the semi-finals.