ALL-ROUND PERFORMANCE by J P Yadav enabled Arera Academy registering the name for the semifinal of the sixth Manish Agnihotri Memorial All India Cricket Tournament. The Arera team defeated a strong IPC by nine wickets in the match played at Old Campion Grounds on Wednesday. Arera team will take on Collage Group Delhi in the semifinal to be played on Thursday.
After a poor presence of spectators in league matches the venue saw a huge turnout of cricket fans. The reason was simple: J P Yadav. Leading the Arera team JP, however, lost the toss and was forced to bowl first.
But the decision to bat first by IPC skipper Asad Baig proved wrong when the batsmen fell like ninepins. The disaster for IPC started with the fall of opener Mudassar Pasha at the score of just three runs. While trying to steal a run, Mudassar failed to reach home in time and was declared out. Next batsmen Suresh, however, was out to an outstanding catch by K D Gupta at the covers on the delivery of J P Yadav.
Mohsin Hasan was next prey of J P Yadav. Hasan was caught at mid-wicket by Premal Jain while trying to hit over the fielders. At the score of 37, IPC had lost four wickets.
Once again Suhail Masood came to bail out the team. He and Sunny Bhatnagar added an invaluable 36 runs for the fifth wicket. But the partnership ended at 73. The figure of 73 proved ‘dangerous’ for IPC as the team lost four batsmen at this score.
{{/usCountry}}Once again Suhail Masood came to bail out the team. He and Sunny Bhatnagar added an invaluable 36 runs for the fifth wicket. But the partnership ended at 73. The figure of 73 proved ‘dangerous’ for IPC as the team lost four batsmen at this score.
{{/usCountry}}Thanks to some lusty hitting by Baig the IPC managed to set a 109-run target for the opponents. Chasing the smallest target for the tournament, the Arera team, with the help of a fine 66 by J P Yadav, registered a thumping nine wickets win in 13.3 overs. The young Varun Sharma contributed 34 runs.
J P Yadav was declared man of the match for his all-round performance. National Hospital director Dr Rajesh Sharma presented the Man of the Match trophy to Yadav.
On the occasion, MPSTDC Managing Director Ashwini Lohani, BDCA vice president Aruneshwar Singhdeo, Dr Shafquat Mohammad Khan, JP Tyagi, MANIT sports officer Dr Rajesh Mishra, Abhay Goswami, Rajesh Bhatia, Sushil Singh and others were present.