ANUP Fulper pressed the rewind button with his all-round performance to help Vidarbha veterans register a narrow one-wicket win over Goa in their opening match of the West Zone Veterans T20 Cricket Tournament being played at Shri Guru Gobind Singhji Stadium in Nanded on Thursday. Vidarbha beat Goa by one wicket to start their campaign with full points. Vidarbha were in a spot of bother after they asked Goa to bat first. Goa posted a challenging 175 for eight in allotted 20 overs. Goa lost early wicket in opener Damodar Redkar (8) who was cleaned up by Fulper in the fourth over. Goa captain Sahil then led from the front hitting a 48-ball 67 runs. His knock included four boundaries and as many sixes.

 

He was finally sent back by Vishal Bhagat in the 15th over who beautifully caught the rival skipper off his own bowling. Sandeep Dmello (32) and Siddhesh Alvencar (50*) then took Goa’s score near 175-run mark. For Vidarbha veterans, Bhagat, Fulper and Tagade took two wickets each. Vidarbha started strongly in return with openers Mangesh Samdurkar (40) and Fulper (31) putting up 72 runs in 6.1 overs. While captain Samdurkar slammed a 21-ball 40 with the help of two boundaries and four sixes, Fulper made 31 from 23 balls which were laced with three balls to the fence and one over it. With the strong foundation laid, Vidarbha batters including Shalabh Shrivastava (22; 16b, 2x4, 1x6), Parikshit Tripathi (37; 25b, 3x4, 2x6), Nitin Gawande (11), Ankit Yadav (11) and Tagde (10) took the team to the shores with a wicket in hand. For Goa, Madar Basappa, Sujal Sawal and Sahil took three wickets each. Fulper was named man of the match.