PAGARIYA Strikers made it to back-to-back finals of the Vidarbha Premier League Season 2 after they defeated Orange Tigers in the Qualifier 2 here at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium on Saturday. In a low-scoring game, last year’s runners-up Pagariya Strikers defeated Orange Tigers by five wickets to book a final date with Bharat Rangers. The mega final will be played on Sunday evening after the women’s summit clash at Jamtha Stadium. After bowling out Orange Tigers for 150 in 19.4 overs on a slow track, Pagariya Strikers achieved the target in 19 overs with highest run-scorer of the tournament Ravikumar Samarth (60*; 44b, 5x4, 2x6) scoring a fine unbeaten half century. Samarth took the Orange Cap back with 369 runs. The partnership of 54 runs for the third wicket between opener Faiz Sheikh (38) and Samarth was the turning point of the innings as the two denied Orange Tigers any inroads after some early wickets. Pagariya Strikers lost opener Aditya Ahuja (17) caught by Yash Rathod off Saurabh Dubey for 17 in the third over. The Tigers tasted another success in Updesh Rajput’s (1) wicket next over.

 

However, Samarth and Faiz build their innings to take their team near the target. They lost Faiz in the 11th over but Samarth and Sanjay (16) took their total near the target. Pagariya Strikers won the important toss and they rightly invited Orange Tigers to bat first. The Rathod-led side found it difficult to bat as they crawled to 150 in 20 overs. The slow nature of wicket assisted Pagariya spinners as they shared six wickets between them with Sanjay, Jasvindar Singh Tak and Pushpak Gujar taking two each. Orange Tigers lost openers Mandar Mahale (24) and dangerous batter Rohit Binkar (19) by the fifth over.

 

To add to their misery, captain Rathod (5) got run out for the second successive game putting pressure on the middle order. Pagariya Strikers dropped two catches before the halfway mark. Rahul Singh failed to judge a high catch of Dhruv Shorey as he lost the ball in the lights. Later, debutant Tak dropped a skier off his own bowling giving a life to Addhyan Rauthan. However, Tak succeeded in getting his maiden wicket in the same over when he got Shorey (9) caught on the long-on boundary by Samarth as Tigers slumped to 69 for four. Tak once again deceived Orange Tigers batter, this time getting Rauthan (25) who gave an easy catch to Gujar at mid-wicket fence in the 13th over. Akshay Karnewar (14) hit two sixes but side-arm spinner R Sanjay trapped him in front of a low and slow delivery making matters worse for Tigers. There was a 10 minutes break due to passing showers, and on resumption, Dahiya hit a boundary towards covers to take their total to 130-7 in 17 overs. Next over, Vishesh Tiwari swept Gujar for a four but they could add another 20 runs and were all out in 19.4 overs.