Move to 2nd spot n By Paritosh Pramanik ATHLETICISM was on display on Tuesday afternoon where Nagpur Heroz fielders flew like ‘Supermen’ taking unbelievable catches as they defeated Orange Tigers for the second time in space of six days in the Vidarbha Premier League here at VCA’s Jamtha International Stadium. Nagpur Heroz, who beat Orange Tigers by 10 runs in their first encounter, produced a much better performance in the return leg, especially on the field, to register a thumping 40 runs victory. The win also took them to second spot with eight points, same as toppers Bharat Rangers. Both the teams will clash in the last league match on June 11. Little cameos from the batters helped Nagpur Heroz post a competitive 207-7 in 20 overs. Chasing 208, Orange Tigers were restricted at 167-9 in 20 overs. All the five Nagpur Heroz bowlers picked wickets with Parth Rekhade taking maximum three. Umesh Yadav and Siddhant Muley took two each while Rajneesh Gurbani and Tejas Soni took one each. There were two brilliant catches by Nagpur Heroz fielders. First in the sixth over, Orange Tigers’ Impact Substitute Rohit Binkar (3) was caught by Rajveer Jolly, another Impact Substitute from Nagpur Heroz.

 

Binkar pulled a Rajneesh Gurbani delivery which went in the air towards the third man fence. Jolly ran around 15 metres back to grab a stunning diving catch. Then in the 8th over, Yash Rathod (31) tried to clear the long-off fence off Siddhant Muley but lanky Gurbani dived to take a brilliant one-handed catch just inside the ropes. Kshitiz Dahiya was the only bright spot in Orange Tigers’ batting who hit a fighting 71 runs from 32 balls. Earlier, captain Aman Mokhade (42) and Rekhade (33) put up 57 runs for the opening wicket. Mokhade hit three sixes and five boundaries in his 17-ball stay in the middle. Orange Tigers pacer Aditya Thakare, who is the leading wicket-taker in the tournament with 16 scalps, got him caught by Mandar Mahale in the 5th over. Thakare went on to take the wickets of Soni and Kartik Rathod as well in the innings. Orange Tigers managed to score 70 in powerplay but lost another wicket in Tushar Suryavanshi (10). By the 10th over, they managed to put up 97 runs but went on to lose wicketkeeper-batter Siddhesh Wath (17). Though there were no big scores from batters, Soni (32), Apoorv Wankhade (24*) and Gurbani (16*) made sure they posed a good challenge for the Orange Tigers. And they did.