FIRST it rained fours and sixes from the blades of Orange Tigers’ Rohit Binkar and Mandar Mahale and then pre-monsoon showers poured on VCA’s Jamtha field forcing umpires to abandon the match after 7.5 overs. The result spelled doom on Nagpur Heroz as they were eliminated from the Vidarbha Premier League Season 2. Fourth placed Nagpur Heroz were ousted due to inferior net run rate (NRR). Though Orange Tigers and Nagpur Heroz had the same number of wins and points, NRR came into effect which pushed the Siddhesh Wath-led side out.

 

Orange Tigers had an NRR of 0.549 while Nagpur Heroz had 0.331. The toss was delayed and the 15-overs-a-side match started an hour late due to rain. Nagpur Heroz invited Orange Tigers to bat first and Binkar threw his bat around scoring 45 runs from two overs. He plundered Nagpur Heroz pacers Umesh Yadav and Rajneesh Gurbani with towering sixes. Binkar (46; 14b, 4x4, 6x4), who has a century and a couple of fifties against his name in the tournament, picked 14 runs from Yadav’s first over.

 

He then went all out against Gurbani picking 31 runs from his first over which had four sixes and a boundary apart from a wide and a couple of runs. Orange Tigers completed 50 runs in 2.3 overs. Binkar could not complete his half century as he was caught by Gurbani off Yadav in the third over. Mahale (47*, 20b, 3x4, 4x6) then took the command but Tigers lost quick wickets in quick succession.

 

At the end of powerplay (4.3 overs) Tigers had collected 87 runs for the loss of two wickets. Tigers got a blow when captain Yash Rathod got run out to a non-existent run. They then got another shock in Akshay Dullarwar’s wicket who was caught in deep by Iknoor Bhamra off Parth Rekhade. Meanwhile, Mahale continued to collect runs but twisted his ankle while completing a second run from a leg bye. It was then that heavens opened again, halting the play with Orange Tigers scoring 107-4 runs from 7.5 overs. After waiting over an hour for rain to stop, umpires decided to call off the game at 5.24 pm.