CHANDIGARH, February 13, 2019: The semi-final line-up has been drawn in the 24th All-India JP Atray Memorial Ceicket Tournament on Wednesday. Minerva Academy Chandigarh No.1 of Pool-1 with 14 points will take on No.2 of Pool – 2 BTM Warriors at GMSSS Sector 26 Chandigarh CAG No.1 of Pool-2 are pitted against Food Corporation of India, Delhi No.2 off Pool – 1 at Tau Devi Lal Stadium Sector 3 Panchkula. Both the matches will start at 9.15 a.m.
Winning the toss and opting to field FCI Delhi restricted Minerva Cricket academy to 243 in 48.4 overs. Gaurav Puri played a scintillating knock of 89 runs off 99 balls with 5 boundaries and 3 sixes and was involved in a 127 runs stand for the 4th wicket with Arush Sabharwal 64 off 83 balls inclusive of 5 boundaries.
Punjab Ranji Trophy players Jeevanjot Singh 24 and Abhishek Gupta 21 were the other main contributors with the bat. For FCI Manish Sehrawat 5 for 54, Manish Tehlan 2 for 62 and Vibhu Tyagi 2 for 11 were the main wicket takers.
Replying FCI Delhi made a disastrous start losing their first five wickets for a paltry score of 24 in 9.2 overs. Medium pacer Gurvinder Bhullar removed Chetan Sharma (0), Ayush Bhardwaj (0) and Sidesh Kinlekar (2) in quick succession. Thereafter Jashanpreet Singh (56) off 74 balls with 4 boundaries and Shivam Gupta (50) off 67 balls with 7 boundaries and one six added 105 runs for the 6th wicket in 21.3 overs.
Shivang Vashist 33 off 39 balls with 3 boundaries was the other notable contributor with the bat. For Minerva Cricket Academy Gurvinder Bhullar 4 for 38, Yadwinder 3 for 31, Sumit Sharma 1 for 28 , Vinay Chaudhary 1 for 21 and Jeevanjot 1 for 43 were main wicket takers. Minerva Cricket Academy won by 50 runs and secured 4 points while FCI Delhi got zero. With this win Minerva Cricket Academy moved to the top of Pool – 1 with 14 points while FCI Delhi secured the second position with 12 points. Gaurav Puri for his brilliant knock was named man of the match.
ARJIT PANNU AND LALIT YADAV HIT TONS
In the second league match played at Tau Cricket Stadium Sector 3 Panchkula between Air India and GST & Excise Chennai, GST & Excise Chennai won the toss and opted to bat. Their innings was embellished by a 64 runs partnership for the 2nd wicket between Ganga S Raju 44 off 51 balls with 8 boundaries and Arjit Pannu.
The partnership was broken when Ganga Raju was caught by Prince of S. Sehrawat with the score reading 84 for 2. Thereafter Simrat Bawa joined Arjit Pannu and the duo put on 61 runs for the 3rd wicket before Simrat Bawa was caught by Mangela of the bowling of Sukhjinder (22) off 25 balls with 2 boundaries. Thereafter A. Venkataraman joined Arjit Pannu who was holding one end up and the duo added 46 runs for the 4th wicket before A. Vanktaraman was caught & bowled by P. Yadav for 14 off 23 balls with 2 boundaries.
Arjit Pannu kept going on one end taking the Air India bowlers to the cleaners as he plundered 148 runs off mere 104 balls studded with 14 well struck boundaries and five towering sixes before being caught by S.Dahiya off S. Sehrawat with team score reading 267 for 6 in 42.2 overs. GST innings ended at 290 in 48.1 overs. Sagar Sehrawat 5 for 54, Vision Panchal 2 for 57, Sukhjinder 1 for 44, Rajan Kumar 1 for 36, Prince Yadav 1 for 5 were the main wicket takers.
Replying Air India Delhi galloped to 293 for 5 in 38.4 overs to win the match by 5 wickets and garner 4 points while GST & Excise Chennai got zero. The Air India innings revolved around Lalit Yadav who first in company of Sagar Dahiya plundered 107 runs for the second wicket in 14.2 overs before Sagar Dahiya was bowled by Ganga Raju for 38 off 47 balls with 4 boundaries.
Lalit Yadav was in a punishing mood and went after the hapless the GST & Excise bowlers as he lambasted a whirlwind big century 168 off just 101 balls which included 26 well struck boundaries and one six. He was the 5th man out when he was caught by substitute Kamal off Harish with teams total reading 263 for 5 in 35.5 overs.
Sagar Sehrawat unbeaten 36 off 41 balls with 4 boundaries and one six saw the team home without any further loss. Despite the win Air India could not make it to the knock out stage. Lalit Yadav of Air India for his swash buckling knock was named man of the match.
The final has been rescheduled to be played at GMSSS Sector 26 Chandigarh on 15th February 15,from 9.15 a.m. onwards.