Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, June 3: A win on the penultimate ball of the match helped star-studded National Cricket Club (NCC) to enter semifinals of the ongoing Salute and Tribute to the Players T20 Cricket Tournament, being organized by Parade Sports Association at Parade Ground, here.
Despite superb all-round show by the Rainawari Cricket Club (RCC) Srinagar bowlers, supported by the fielders while defending a modest total of 129 runs, late middle-order batsmen of NCC-Puneet Kumar and Deepak Singh Manhas held their nerves in the pressure cooker situation to help their side script a narrow win by 2 wickets on the penultimate ball of the match and enter the last four stage.
Needing 17 runs off last 7 deliveries, NCC batsmen Puneet and Deepak kept cool and showed grit and guts to surpass the target on the fifth ball of the last over, smashing one huge six and 2 delectable boundaries in the process.
Chasing a target of 130 runs, NCC managed to score 39 runs in the first 4 overs by losing the wicket of wicketkeeper-batsman Manish Dogra, before the other opener Sagar Gupta, who smashed a six and a four in the very first over retired-hurt at his individual score of 19 runs. Gokul Baru played a sedate but composed innings of 29 runs off 38 balls including 2 boundaries, while Sagar and Jatin contributed 23 and 20 runs respectively, before Puneet and Deepak took their side to home. For RCC Srinagar, Satish Kumar bagged 3 wickets in his 4 overs by conceding 33 runs, while Venus took 2 important wickets by giving away 18 runs in his 4 overs. Dilbagh Singh was also economical in his 4 overs and scalped one wicket, while Aman claimed 1 wicket by conceding 38 runs in his 4 overs.
Earlier, RCC Srinagar after a flying start by the openers-Puneet Wattal and Ishan lost its way in the middle overs to score a modest total of 129 runs in the stipulated 20 overs. Middle-order batsmen, Satish Kumar, Shahbaz Ahmad and Ajay Sharma failed to negotiate the rival bowlers to fell cheaply, thus could not convert good start into a big score. However, Aman Singh and Rahul Mussa made some good contributions to give the score some respectability. Aman scored 32 runs off 26 balls with 5 boundaries, while Rahul contributed 25 runs off 23 balls, studded with 4 boundaries. Puneet Wattal earlier chipped in with 23 runs off 14 balls with 3 crispy fours, while Venus contributed unbeaten 11 runs off 6 balls. For NCC, Mayank Goutam, Vijay Dogra and Deepak Singh Manhas scalped 2 wickets each by conceding 25, 15 and 38 runs in their 4 overs respectively, while Rohit Bhat claimed one wicket in his 4 overs by giving away 17 runs.
The match was officiated by Saleem-ul-Rehman and Harsh Nayyar as umpires, while Sunny was the scorer.
The Tournament is being held under the supervision of Vijay Sabarwal, Ramesh Pargal, Anil Kumar Mahajan, Pawan Gupta, Ashok Gupta, Naresh Gupta, besides other members of the organizing committee.
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