MARGAO
Mapusa Dream Crushers beat Delite Titans by 1 wicket and a ball to spare in the Desserts n More +45 Veterans Sarsangan Cricket Series at Arlem cricket ground, on Friday.
Electing to bat first, Delite Titans put up an imposing 175/9 in their allotted 20 overs, thanks to Sanjay Netravalkar who made 46 runs off 42 balls, and was supported by Avinash Kossambe (37), Vishnu Naik Namshikar (31) & Mahendra Khandeparkar (11). MDC were quite generous in their bowling conceding 28 wides in a total of 33 extras.
The highlight of the Titans innings being a 88-run partnership off just 57 balls stitched between Sanjay Netravalkar and Avinash Kossambe for the second wicket which laid the foundation for the Titans. For MDC, the successful bowlers were Dr. Sagar Salgaocar (2-26), Mahesh Churi (2-33), Mahesh Kamat Bambolkar (1-11), Mahesh Kudchadkar (1-15) and Rajesh Colvalcar (1-32).
In reply, Mapusa Dream Crushers were off to a disastrous start losing both the openers to the swing of Pradip Shetye with the score at 13. However, DySP (South) Rajendra Prabhudesai (50*) along with the company of the old warhorse Sudin Kamat (28) and later with Anant Chodnekar (15) led the fightback for MDC stitching important partnerships. At 77-5 (11.2 overs) and then at 114-7 (14.4 overs), the Sarsangan predictor was tilted in favour of a Delite Titans win.
The same was however proved wrong thanks to a late burst by the lower order comprising of the MDC skipper Rajesh Colvalcar (15) , Abhay Karande (23), Mahesh Churi (11*) and Shailesh Mahajan (9*), with some lusty blows and terrific running in between the wickets, aided by some slopy fielding and lacklustre bowling by the Titans, helping MDC reach 177/9 in 19.5 overs and edge past the Titans by 1 wicket and 1 ball to spare.
For Titans, the successful bowlers were Pradip Shetye, the skipper with terrific figures of 3-1-15-2 and supported by Sandesh Kamat Bambolkar (2-31) and Samruddh Hegde Desai (1-31)
Rajendra Prabhudesai for his brilliant innings and Mahesh Churi for his all-round show were jointly awarded the Desserts n More man of the match medal.
