By Paritosh Pramanik ORANGE Tigers bowlers fired in unison and then the batters, especially Mandar Mahale, demonstrated their batting abilities to beat India Warriors in the Vidarbha Premier League here at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium on Sunday. Chasing a modest 149 runs put up by India Warriors, Orange Tigers cantered home with five wickets in hand and five balls to spare. This was Orange Tigers’ third win and they are at the second spot with six points behind Bharat Rangers (8). Despite losing Rohit Binkar cheaply in the second over of the innings, Orange Tigers still managed to score 51-1 in powerplay. Mahale (81; 62b, 6x4, 4x6) took the charge hitting a couple of sixes in the next over. The lefthanded batter duly completed his half century in 43 deliveries which was laced with three fours and as many sixes. Mahale and Dhruv Shorey (8) added 50 runs for the second wicket and then Mahale was joined by captain Yash Rathod (25) to put up 65 runs for the third wicket. Mahale got run out when the team needed just two runs after he tried to take a non-existent run. Earlier, Orange Tigers put pressure on India Warriors from the first ball when Saurabh Dubey got opener Vaibhav Lande on his first delivery.

 

Dubey beautifully bowled an inswinger which rattled Lande’s furniture. Sabbamitta Gavai, promoted up the order, hit some lusty blows to ease pressure. The tall and well-built batter hit Aditya Thakare for a six over long off and then scored a boundary towards third man. Orange Tigers bowled a penetrative line with Purple Cap holder Aditya Thakare making it difficult for India Warriors batters. He rightly swelled his wickets column to 13 with three scalps on Sunday evening. His three victims were Satyam Bhoyar, Shree Choudhary and Praful Hinge. Orange Tigers’ mentor Trevor Gonsalves, who is also the assistant coach of IPL franchise Punjab Kings, used his experience and rotated the bowlers judiciously. He used spinner Shreyash Padole in the middleovers and the bowler restrictedthe run flow giving only 24 runs from his quota of four overs. Saurabh Dubey, who bowled the wicket-maiden first over conceded only 21 runs in three overs taking two wickets. As for the India Warriors, they found it difficult to get going. Bhoyar, Gavai, DarshanNalkande and Ashit Singh scoredin double digits but perished tosome fine bowling by Tigers. Kshitiz Dahiya got the better of dangerous looking Gavai in the sixth over as Warriors were pushed to the wall with 54-3 inpowerplay. For the second game in running, India Warriors were led by Shubham Dubey in place of regular captain Akshay Wadkar.