TNCA Districts XI posted an emphatic 188-run victory over Himachal Pradesh to sail into the final of the Kalpathi AGS-Buchi Babu all-India cricket tournament on Saturday.
Chasing 287 for victory, Himachal was forced into a meek surrender by left-arm spinner R. Sai Kishore (five for 27) and off-spinner P. Sakthi (four for 39).
Spinners impressAfter four overs of pace, skipper X. Thalaivan Sargunam brought his spinners on. Sai Kishore and Sakthi impressed with their flight and extracted bounce off the pitch to have the opposition in a spin. A little more than two hours later, during which time Himachal’s pursuit had irrevocably spun out of control, the pair trudged off the pitch to acclamation from the Districts XI camp.
Himachal, in fact, had got off to a steady start with 44 coming off nine overs, but opener Prashant Chopra’s departure triggered an unexpected downslide. After Sai Kishore had Jarnail Singh caught behind with a delivery that raised and took a faint edge, two wicket maidens ensued and Himachal was reeling at 54 for four.
Encouraged, the bowlers went on the prowl. With two slips and a silly point in place, they hunted the rest of the batsmen down leaving no scope for a comeback. Some of the batsmen were out to poor shot selection, attempting to take on the bowlers out of desperation.
It was Sai Kishore’s second successive five-wicket haul in the tournament after he had an impressive outing picking up six wickets against Haryana in the quarterfinals.
“We (Sakthi and I) sensed that the wicket was doing a bit. So, we just focused on bowling in the right areas, waiting for the batsmen to make mistakes,” he said.
In the other semifinal, Abhishek Nayar carried his bat to take Mumbai home with a gritty 94 (139b, 7x4, 3x6) against Andhra, forging two big partnerships in the process that helped his team reach the target with two wickets to spare.
After Mumbai had slumped to 69 for four, he joined hands with Shridep Mangela and the pair put on 67 runs for the fifth wicket that brought Mumbai back into the game.
Sudhakar bags fiveHowever, it was his 91-run seventh-wicket partnership with Siddhesh Lad that was the clincher as it took the team within sniffing distance of victory. After Lad fell, followed by another wicket, Nayar wasted no time in knocking off the winning runs. For Andhra, left-arm spinner B. Sudhakar did his best, picking up five wickets.
The scores: TNCA Districts XI 286 in 89.2 overs bt Himachal Pradesh 98 in 33.3 overs (R. Sai Kishore five for 27, P. Sakthi four for 39).
Andhra 265 for nine in 90 overs lost to Mumbai 266 for eight in 86 overs (Shridep Mangela 39, Abhishek Nayar 94 n.o., Siddhesh Lad 39, B. Sudhakar five for 87).
