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PDCA cricket: DY Patil clinch maiden win in their first appearance
Beat BVB Paranjape ‘B’ by 8 wickets in the under-14 tournament.
Pune: After a dismaying start to their first-ever PDCA tournament, DY Patil earned their maiden win in the U-14 Kohinoor Pune District Cricket Association (PDCA) cricket tournament at the Law College Ground against BVB Paranjape ‘B’ on Friday. Skipper Harshwardhan Kakade played a captain’s innings as he went on to bag 2 wickets and score 76 runs, helping his side chase down a target of 128 runs which saw DY Patil emerge with a glorious 8-wicket victory.
First opportunity
After getting registered under the PDCA recently, DY Patil were eagerly waiting to participate in the tournament. Their players and coach were quite upbeat even after knowing that they had no chance of progressing to the next phase. “We have been waiting for this moment for the last two years. Just getting to play in this event is a major achievement for me,” said Rakesh Ahire, head-coach of DY Patil.
Celebrations are in order for DY Patil as Ahire believes that this is just the beginning. As of now their coach is content with participation and a consolation victory, but expects his team to evolve in the coming months.
“We are going to celebrate today despite the fact that we may not progress to the knockout stage. After losing the first two games, I have seen the players improve rather than getting discouraged and they showed it today, so that calls for a celebration,” said Ahire.
Staying at the crease till the end of the match, Kakade was also happy and proud of his team’s performance.
“We committed a lot of mistakes in the first two matches, but I think that was natural considering the fact that this is our very first tournament. The best thing today was that we did not repeat our mistakes,” said Kakade. The skipper added, “I got dismissed in the first two fixtures because of the same mistake and going into this game, I was adamant that I would not repeat it and I succeeded.”
The game
After winning the toss, Paranjape ‘B’ elected to bat first and were off to a very strong start. At the end of the seventh over, Paranjape crossed the 50-run mark without losing a single wicket. The 51-run partnership between openers Malhar Patil and Tanisha Kudale was ended by Rudra Jaybhaye in the eighth over after Patil’s lofted effort was caught safely by Kakade. A couple of overs later, Kulade was also sent back to the pavilion by Kakade after being caught by Sarvesh Waghmare.
As the run-rate gradually dropped, the frequency of dismissals increased. Chirag Bansode bowled the eleventh over and picked a wicket for himself after Atharva Nannajkar edged the ball towards the keeper’s gloves. Keeper Prathamesh Waghmare collected a comfortable catch to dismiss Nannajkar after just 3 runs. Paranjape touched the 60-run mark without losing a wicket, but ended up losing four by the time they reached 75.
Shrerang Tambolkar became Kakade’s second victim of the day as he was clean bowled after making just 3 runs. The Paranjape middle order collapsed and the run-rate went down with it. However, Paranjape still managed to keep the run-rate above 6. The fifth and final wicket for DY Patil came towards the end of the innings, in the fifteenth over. On Siddhesh Gurav’s first delivery of the over, Jay Gaikwad and Ishan Khadilkar attempted a quick single, but the ball hit the stumps before Khadlikar could cross the crease.
Chasing a target of 128 runs, DY Patil started off on the front foot with Kakade and Prathamesh at the crease. Unlike Paranjape, DY Patil ended up losing an early wicket when Prathamesh was dismissed by Jay Gaikwad after Shreeram caught his poorly hit shot. Prathamesh only managed to make 4 runs off 11 balls. Two deliveries later, Gaikwad clinched another wicket as he wrecked the stumps to send Sarvesh Waghmare back to the pavilion, on a duck.
DY Patil bounced back well from the early blows as Kakade and new batsman Chirag Bansode solidified their stance on the pitch. While Bansode scored 31 runs off 43 balls, Kakade went on to smash nine boundaries and scored 76 off 57 balls. His valiant effort raised the run-rate at the right time as DY Patil won the match with just three deliveries to spare and eight wickets in hand.
“It is a huge morale booster for us. It was hard losing the opening two games, but we kept our tactics simple and vowed not to repeat our individual mistakes. It was amazing to see the players showing drastic improvement and I hope it gets better from here. As of now, I am just happy to be a part of the team which is finally playing in a PDCA tournament,” said Harshwardhan Kakade, man of the match, DY Patil High School.
