Bharat Rangers blast their way to easy win

 

 

THE sparse crowd gathered at VCA’s Jamtha Stadium came to see Jitesh Sharma hitting fours and sixes. But they returned home disappointed as the Neco Master Blasters captain, who won the IPL title for Royal Challengers Bengaluru recently, failed to help his side start the Vidarbha Pro T20 League campaign on a winning note. Bharat Rangers’ pacers Shubham Kapse (3-21) and NachiketBhute (3-32) shared six wickets between them as they recorded a comfortable 23 runs victoryin theirinauguralmatch. Bharat Rangers, despite scoring a below par score of 131 all out,bowled superblywithBhute and Kapse breaking the backbone of Master Blasters in the power play. Both the bowlers had extended first spell of three overs each, a rarity in T20, as they claimed four wickets in first six overs to leave Master Blasters reeling at 43-4.

 

TheirhopesrestedonJitesh Sharma and all waited with bated breadth to see their stumper playing a captain’s knock, but spinner Gaurav Farde bowled well to get his wicket caught by captainAthravTaide forjustnine runs when the batter attemped an unnecessary sweep shot. The downfall started in the third over when opener Vedant Dighade was trapped in front by Bhute. Kapse then got R Sanjay who nicked the ball to Taide in slips. Adhyan Daga tried to ease pressure with a six and two boundaries off Bhute’s over but the bowler had the last laugh to get rid of the batter caught by Manan Agrawal Opener Aryan Meshram played a little cameo with a couple of boundaries butKapse disturbed his furniture in the sixth over. Gaurav Dhoble (16) and Akash Kombe (10) delayed the process but the Taide-led side crossed the line with ease in the end. Earlier, Bharat Rangers could muster 131 runs thanks to the topandmiddleorderbatterswho couldmanagerunsindouble figures.

 

DanishMalewar (29),Neel Athaley (23),UpdeshRajput (22) andMalharDosi (24)startedwell but failed to convert them into big scores as Neco Master Blasters bowlers kept bouncing back with timely wickets. The Rangers were shocked in the first two overs when their openers – skipper Taide and Shree Choudhary both fell cheaply.Choudharywas the first to goonduck.PacerPrafulHinge bowled a fuller length delivery which forced Choudhary to nick it to the wicketkeeper Jitesh Sharma. Next over,Taide played an away widish delivery to give Sharma his second catch of the innings. Malewar and Athaley showed some resistance with a 43-run partnership for the third wicket but they too could not stay put in the middle. Blasters’ Jaiswal bowled his medium pace deliveries with a smooth action and was effective in taking two wickets.

 

He mixed his deliveries quite well which includedafewbouncers.His figures read 4-0-23-2. R Sanjay, Sanmesh Deshmukh and Hinge bowled well to take a couple of wickets each. Man of the match Kapse, who took three wickets, said, “It was on a slower side and I just maintained the line.I have been a net bowler with Gujarat Titans and that experience helped me a lot here. I have learned a lot from Ashu bhai (Ashish Nehra) at Gujarat Titans.” 

 

BINKAR HITS UNBEATEN 78 AS TIGERS ROAR OPENER Rohit Binkar cracked a match-winning unbeaten half-century as Orange Tigers recorded an easy four-wicket win over Nagpur Heroz under lights. Chasing a modest 127, Tigers lost five batters who scored in single digits but Binkarcarriedhisbat through to a fine unbeaten 78 (747b, 9x4, 4x6) to see his team through. Kshitij Dahiya too battedwell for his 17 from 20 balls. Earlier,TejasSoni andYash Thakur’s rearguard action helped Nagpur Heroz to 126 in 20 overs. With the top and middle order fumbling in front of OrangeTigers,Sonimanaged to score 25 from 17 balls and Thakur hit a six and four boundaries to remain unbeatenon29from15balls. Mandar Mahale (19), and Prabal Chokhande (18) were the other batters to reach double digits ForOrangeTigers,Darshan Nalkande took two wickets while Saurabh Dubey, Dahiya, Akshay Karnewar, GaneshBhosle,VikramPatel and Minar Sahare all took a wicket each. Briefscores:NagpurHeroz 126-9(TSoni25,YThakur29*; DNalkande2-35,AKarnewar 1-18) lost to Orange Tigers 131-6 (RBinkar 78*,KDahiya 17; A Ingle 2-15, Y Thakur 2- 25) by four wickets.