By Paritosh Pramanik BHARAT Rangers made mockery of the humongous 236 runs target put up by Orange Tigers as they cantered home to a six-wicket win in their opening match of Vidarbha Premier League T20 Cricket Tournament at VCA’s Jamtha International Stadium on Tuesday evening. The chase looked easy because of the thunderous batting from Vedant Jajoo (113; 46b, 11x4, 8x6) who lit up the Jamtha sky with flurry of sixes and fours as he slammed tournament’s second century after R Samarth’s heroics a day earlier. Manan Agrawal too played brilliant all-rounder’s knock to see his side through. Coming in at No 3 after both Bharat Rangers batters Atharva Taide (13) and Danish Malewar (22) returned to pavilion, Jajoo spared none as he clobbered Orange Tigers bowlers to all parts of the field. Pacers Saurabh Dubey (0-45) and Aditya Thakare (4-54) were treated with disdain. Jajoo and Manan Agrawal (52) added a match-winning third wicket partnership of 143 runs in 62 deliveries to take the fizz out of the match. Rangers crossed the 50-run mark in 3.3 overs and then raced to 92 for two in powerplay. In the next four overs the score reached 152 for two as the two batters continued their six-hitting spree. Manan Agrawal’s innings needs special praise as he gave the right support to Jajoo which blew away Orange Tigers’ hopes. Varun Bisht (12*) and Jagjot Sasan (13) completed the formalities with 17 deliveries to spare. Earlier, Rohit Binkar and Akshay Agarwal slammed a half century each while Akshay Karnewar scored an excellent 42 to bail out Orange Tigers from a precarious position. From 11 for four in the third over, the duo played sensible knocks to help Tigers post a challenging total of 235-8.

 

Bharat Rangers bowled well in the first half restricting Orange Tigers at 79 for four in 10 overs. But Binkar and Agarwal unleashed fours and sixes as they turned the heat back on their opponents. By the end of 15th over, Tigers were 160-6. Binkar took the mettle in his hands and scored 36-ball 53 (3x4, 4x6) which eased the pressure on Tigers. After his departure, Akshay Agarwal showed his batting prowess with 57 from 33 deliveries which contained five fours and four maximums. Both the batters fell to Manan Agrawal, who despite taking the wickets, leaked runs (2-56). Akshay Karnewar then played a cameo to score 42 from 19. It was maniac three overs from Bharat Rangers’ Nachiket Bhute and Sanyog Bhagwat which buried Orange Tigers under a mountain of pressure. Bhute generated enough pace and movement to stun Orange Tigers’ opener Mandar Mahale for a first ball duck. A delivery later, Dhruv Shorey slashed one towards third man and the ball landed in safe hands of Hrushikesh Pawar. Captain Yash Rathod gave a simple catch to Varun Bisht at covers off Bhagawat as Tigers’ top order crumbled. They got another blow in the wicket of Kshitiz Dahiya who was caught at slips to a debatable catch by Danish Malewar. It looked as if Malewar grassed the ball but the third umpire thought otherwise. The Tigers crawled to 30-4 in powerplay. Rohit Binkar and Akshay Agarwal then steadied the rocking ship as they cautiously built the fifth wicket partnership of 78 runs which pulled them back into the game. Agarwal also had another fruitful partnership with Karnewar of 70 runs for the sixth wicket. Vishesh Tiwari (30*) and Shreyas Padole (24*) threw their bats to take their score past the 230-run mark. But that was not enough as Jajoo-Agrawal stole the show in the end.