Monday, February 9, 2009

Rashtriya Sahara, Dainik Jagran in semis




Patna, February 8
Defending champions Rashtriya Sahara and Dainik Jagran stormed into the semi-finals of the 4th Airtel Media Cup Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Moinul Haq Satdium here on Sunday. Rashtriya Sahara trounced Sanmarg by 58 runs while Dainik Jagran drubbed All India Radio, Patna by 52 runs in their respective quarter-finals matches.

In the first match of the day, Abhay Pathak and Rajiv Ranjan tormented Sanmarg bowling attack with aggressive battings. Abhay was the most aggressive of the two collecting 72 runs off 57 balls with 13 nicely executed shots to the fence. Rajiv Ranjan made 46 runs. Sahara piled up 154 runs for the loss of five wickets off 20 overs. Mayank Sharma claimed two wickets for 19 runs.

In reply, Sanmarg could muster 96 all out off 19.3 overs. Prabhakar (24) was the lone Sanmarg batsman, who defied the Rashtriya Sahara attack with some guts and application. Nitosh Jha and Virendra Singh bagged two wickets each.

Abhay Pathak of Rashtriya Sahara was named man of the match. Bihar Carrom Association secretary Bharat Bhushan, who was the chief guest of today’s first match, gave away the award to Abhay.

The day’s second match saw Dainik Jagran scoring 137 runs for the loss of five wickets off 20 overs. Prasanna Singh delighted the crowd with some lofty strokes. He remained not out after making an attractive 46 runs. Deepak claimed three wickets for 23 runs for AIR.

In reply, AIR were shot out for 85 runs off 19.5 overs. Deepak top scored with 19 runs. Alok Chaturvedi returned with the best figure of the day claiming four wickets for 13 runs. Later, Prasanna Singh was adjudged man of the match.

Brief scores: Rashtriya Sahara: 154 for 5 off 20 overs (Abhay Pathak 72, Rajiv Ranjan 46, Mayank Sharma 2 for 19, Ravi Upadhayaya 1 for 17, Rajat 1 for 25, Apurva Verma 1 for 11).
Sanmarg: 96 0ff 19.3 overs (Prabhakar 24, Rajiv 12, Sanjay 16, Nitosh Jha 2 for 8, Virendra Singh 2 for 13, Bhashkar 1 for 10, Om Prakash 1 for 16, Rajiv Ranjan 1 for 21, Rakesh Singh Chauhan 1 for 18, Ravi Bhushan 1 for 4).

Dainik Jagran:137 for 5 off 20 overs (Prasanna Singh 46 not out, Amrendra 25, Alok Chaturvedi 22, Manish Singh 11, Ramesh 14, Deepak 3 for 23, Alakh 1 for 21).
AIR: 85 all out off 19.5 overs (Deepak 19, Neeraj Kumar Sinha 14, Vijendra 10, Alok Chaturvedi 4 for 13, Prasanna 2 for 12, Yogesh Msihra 2 for 14, Ramesh 1 for 11).

Photo Caption: Players of Rashtriya Sahara and Sanmarg teams (top) and Dainik Jagran and AIR, Patna teams (bottom) pose for group photographs in Patna on Sunday.
Photo: Aftab Alam Siddiqui

No comments:

Post a Comment