By Paritosh Pramanik DEFENDING champions Neco Master Blaster have become a punching bag this season. The team has failed to record a single win in their six matches they played till date. In their return-leg match against Pagariya Strikers, Master Blaster once again suffered defeat, this time by eight wickets. Pagariya Strikers thus moved to third spot with eight points. Neco Master Blaster did manage to post a competitive 166-8, thanks to Jitesh Sharma’s half century but the bowlers once again failed to defend the total. Pagariya Strikers’ opener Aditya Ahuja slammed unbeaten 78 runs from 40 balls (9x4, 4x6) while Yash Kadam played a captain’s knock of 72* runs (39b, 3x4, 6x6) to puncture Neco Master Blaster bowling. The two added undefeated 146 runs for the third wicket which took them home with 25 balls to spare. Despite losing Faiz Sheikh early, Pagariya Strikers raced to 49-2 in powerplay (5.4 overs). Ravikumar Samarth was sent back for a duck by a brilliant catch by Shanmesh Deshmukh who dived forward to grab the stunner. Opener Ahuja was then joined by Kadam and the two spared none. Kadam picked three boundaries from an Arya Durugkar over. Ahuja, on the other hand, picked Gaurav Farde to hit a couple of boundaries. As the innings progressed, sixes started flowing from the bats of both the players.

 

Kadam and Ahuja hit captain Ananmay Jayaswal for a six each in the 12th over as they inched closer to the revised target of 168 (original 167). The formalities were done quite early with both the batsmen returning home unharmed. Jitesh finally showed his batting skills hitting his first half century of the competition and some rearguard action from Shantanu Rajput (25) and Vedant Dighade (45) helped Neco Master Blaster score 166-8 in a rain-curtailed first innings. Jitesh hit 10 fours and two sixes to score 56 runs from 21 deliveries. He and Kush Khandelwal posted 65 runs for the third wicket in which Jitesh contributed 56 runs. Neco Master Blaster, who were captained by Ananmay Jayaswal, lost opener Adhyayan Daga (6) and Tushar Kadu (5) by the third over. Rains intervened for a brief period and the match was reduced to 19-overs-per side encounter. When rain stopped play, Neco Master Blaster were 118-5 from 14.1 overs with Dighade (11) and Rajput (23) at the crease. After restart, Master Blaster added 48 runs from the remaining 5.5 overs.