PUNE After losing an early wicket in the very first over, Jai Hind High School staged a strong comeback, thanks to stellar performances from skipper Om Vadaraikar and Aditi Joshi, to notch a win against Paranjape Vidya Mandir at the ILS Law College Ground on Monday.
Jai Hind nabbed a 39-run victory in their Group B encounter of the U-14 Kohinoor Pune District Cricket Association (PDCA) cricket tournament.
A crucial win for Jai Hind places them at the top of their group with one more game left to play.
The game was like a roller-coaster ride from the first over when Rudra Aurangabadkar clean bowled Jai Hind’s opener, Piyush Waghmare, for a duck on the second ball of the first over.
Two consecutive boundaries from Pushkar Karkhile helped in starting a strong partnership between him and Vadaraikar, who had replaced Waghmare at the crease.
The partnership put 57 runs on the board before Paranjape’s Shardul Bali caught Karkhile on the wrong foot with a pacey in-swinger that made a mess of the stumps.
At the midway point of the innings, Jai Hind were maintaining a decent run rate as they scored 73 runs and lost two wickets in the process.
{{/usCountry}}At the midway point of the innings, Jai Hind were maintaining a decent run rate as they scored 73 runs and lost two wickets in the process.
{{/usCountry}}As Jai Hind edged closer to the 100-run mark, Om Vadaraikar smashed another boundary towards the leg-side to bring up his half-centur.
Vadaraikar and Pruthviraj Barne were quite comfortable at the crease and did not let the run rate drop. Boundaries aside, the duo also opted to go for quick runs between the wickets. The risky tactic presented Paranjape with a glorious opportunity to end the partnership with a run-out, but the fielders fumbled twice.
However, the duo ran out of lifelines as Barne was finally dismissed in a run-out as he tried to take a quick single.
The tempo dropped towards the end of Jai Hind’s innings, but skipper Vadaraikar helped his side to post a target of 159 runs. Vadaraikar almost lost his wicket in the last over, but the keeper could not get his gloves around the ball to stump the top-scorer as he finished the innings the 85 runs under his name.
As Paranjape came out to chase the challenging target, opening batsman Shaunak Pathak heaved a huge sigh of relief after his shot, which was flying towards a fielder, was dropped in the second over. Pathak survived another scare in the fourth over when he tried to take a quick single and almost got dismissed in a run-out. In the following deliveries, a nervy Pathak retained strike but failed to make contact with the ball. Five overs into the game, Paranjape did not lose a wicket but were finding it difficult to attain the required run rate.
After making 21 runs off the first five overs, the Paranjape openers resorted to risky running between the wickets on several occasions and were lucky to see the ball not hit the wickets directly from throws.
In the sixth over, Paranjape were dealt the first blow of the match via an LBW when Aurangabadkar was dismissed by Vadaraikar. Panicky Paranjape were saved by poor fielding and handling of the ball after a confusing situation saw both batsmen running in the same direction before realising their goof-up and returning to their original positions.
Paranjape lost their second wicket when Pathak received his marching orders after being caught at mid-on in Aditi Joshi’s first over. Joshi, who was the only girl on the ground, helped Jai Hind reduce the opponent’s run rate even further as Paranjape needed 91 to win from 48 deliveries. In her second over, she only gave away two runs which helped unsettle the batsmen. In the following over, Ayush Khute trotted back to the pavilion after making just 8 runs. Pacer Piyush Waghmare caught Khute with an LBW.
In her third over, Joshi claimed two more wickets when she sent Shardul Bali and Tanish Mazire back to the pavilion. Bali’s lofted shot was caught at mid-on while Mazire edged the ball straight into the keeper’s gloves. Joshi returned to bowl the eighteenth over and almost picked up another wicket but the catch was dropped. The dropped catch did not concern the players as Joshi gave away just 14 runs in 4 overs and picked up 3 crucial wickets.
In the final over, Pranav Bhujbal dismissed Shardul Sahastrabuddhe while Aurnagabadkar completed his half-century. Playing the entire 20 overs, Paranjape finished with a score of 119 after losing 6 wickets. Aurangabadkar remained not out at 51 but could not carry the entire team’s burden by himself.
After the match
“I believe the opportunities for boys and girls are the same. Hence, I picked Aditi [Joshi] to play alongside the boys and she has not disappointed me. We managed to keep their run rate in check, but Aditi came in, did not give away silly runs and picked up crucial wickets that shook their middle order. The girl has a bright future ahead of her and I really hope to see her succeed in this sport.”
- Chetan Chauhan, Coach, Jai Hind High School.
“We made a few silly mistakes in the first match of the tournament and it was really nice to see that we did not commit the same mistakes today. The match was good, but not great. We set a decent target but I think we could have scored more and lost fewer wickets. According to me, we should not lose more than two wickets when we are batting. We lost our first wicket in the first over itself so that put us under a lot of pressure, but thankfully we kept our composure and tackled the challenge well.”
- Om Vadaraikar, Jai Hind High School, Man of the Match.
Results
New English School Ramanbaug 149 for 6 in 19 overs (Suyash Trigune 62, Prathamesh Warle 18*, Vedant Dabi 1-16) beat Vidya Bhavan High School 84 all out in 16.3 overs (Soham Rathi 33, Ishan Indani 15, Kaivalya Ubhe 2-18).
Jai Hind High School 158 for 3 in 20 overs (Om Vadaraikar 82*, Pushkar Karkhile 24, Shardul Bali 1-27) beat Paranjape Vidya Mandir 119 for 6 in 20 overs (Rudra Aurangabadkar 51*, Shaunak Pathak 19, Aditi Joshi 3-14).