Nagpur, April9
Host Amravati district will take on their arch-rivals Buldhana in the finals of Inter-District T20 Cricket Tournament conducted by VCA at HVPM , Amravati ground on Sunday.
In a nail biting semi final played between Amravati and Bhandara, host Amravati recorded an exciting 6 runs victory to storm into the finals. After winning the toss, Bhandara opted to field first.
Amravati District recorded a respectable total of 167 for 8 wickets in stipulated quota of 20 overs mainly through, their skipper and Ranji trophy player Apoorva Wankhede (42, 3'x4, 2x6), Piyush Khope (31, 3x4, 1x6) and Rinku Chhikara (27 2x4, 1x6)
For Bhandara , Suraj Rai was most successful bowler (4-0-16-3) & Aditya Khilote lent him good support (4-0-30-2)
In reply, Bhandara lost their three wickets rather cheaply, but 4th wicket partnership of 65 runs between Chakresh Khurana (38, 4x4, 2x6, ) and Kshitij Dahiya (28, 1x4, 1x6) changed the complexion of the game. Later Sooraj Rai played a cameo knock (18 ,1x4, 1x6) to bring their team in sight of victory.
At this stage, Bhandara required 11 runs off 23 balls with 5 wickets in hand to win , but some accurate and miserly spell by man-of-the match Ankush Nawalkar (4-0-23-3) , Dipesh Parwani (4-0-21-2) and Avinash Jadhav (4-0-29-2) restricted Bhandara district teams total to 161 for 9 in stipulated quota of 20 overs, which enabled Host Amravati team to record an exciting 6 runs win
In another semi-final, Buldhana batted first and compiled 153 runs in 19.5 overs. After a sound start given by Buldhana dist openers, skipper Avesh Shaikh (23, 2x4, 2x6) and Sourabh Thubrikar (28 4x4, 1x6, 18 balls) , they lost some quick wickets. But some disciplined display of batting by Suniket Bingewar (38, 1x4, 2x6) and Gopal Nile (17, 2x4) gave some respectability to their total.
For Wardha Pawan Chamhare, Nikhil Kitey and Mandar Ghodmare captured 2 wickets apiece.
In reply, Wardha team was restricted to a score of 141 for 7 wickets in stipulated 20 overs. Suniket Bingewar, who earlier shone with the bat gave fine performance with red cherry to return with fine figures of 4-0-26-4.
Sourabh Thubrikar lent him support from the other end to capture 2 wickets for 15.
For Wardha dist., Tushar Gill top scored with (39) Nitesh Chauhan (21), Aryadeep Chaudhary (20) Akash Kombe and Qumail Ajani contributed 18 runs each.