Left-arm spinner Atharva Ankolekar 5 wickets for 73 runs and Chirag Gandhi’s unbeaten century knock 104 runs were the significant efforts which enabled Income Tax ‘A’ emerge champions defeating Tata Sports Club by a comfortable six wickets in the ‘A’ Division final of the 1st MCA Corporate Trophy Cricket Tournament played at the Sharad Pawar Cricket Academy ground, BKC on Wednesday.
Choosing to bat first Tata SC innings was rocked by the clever bowling by Ankolekar and lost crucial wickets at regular intervals and was dismissed for 244 runs in 60.4 overs. Ravi Jangid the second left-arm spinner played the perfect supporting role claiming 3 wickets for 59 runs. Later, Gandhi batted confidently and along with Vishant More, who scored an unbeaten 44 runs (63-balls, 4x4s, 1x6s), stitched together an unbeaten 121-run partnership to ensure Income Tax overhaul the rival total scoring 245 runs for 4 wickets in 58.3 overs. Opener Anup Fulper 48 runs (73-balls, 7x4s) made a useful contribution.
Tata SC opening batsmen Kaustubh Pawar 45 runs (89-balls, 6x4s, 1×6) and Varun Lavande 21 runs provided the innings with a positive start scoring 57 runs for the first wicket. Later, number 5 bat Nikhil Patil 83 runs (97-balls, 7x4s, 2x6s) and Vaibhav Kalamkar 25 runs put together 79 runs for the 5th wicket to prop the Tata SC innings to 193 for 5 wickets. But, Tata’s lost the remaining five wickets for the addition of 51 runs.
In response, Income Tax suffered initial setbacks as they lost the top three batsmen with 75 runs on the board in the 23rd over. But, number 4 bat, Gandhi and number 5 bat Pragnesh Kanpillewar 26 runs steadied the innings. Later, Gandhi and More stayed together to help Income Tax cross the finish line with plenty to spare.
Brief scores – A-Div final: Tata Sports Club 244 all out, in 60.4 overs (Nikhil Patil 83, Kaustubh Pawar 45; Atharva Ankolekar 5/73, Ravi Jangid 3/59) lost to Income Tax ‘A’ 245 for 4 wickets, in 58.3 overs (Chirag Gandhi 104 not out, Anup Fulper 48, Vishant More 44 not out; Harsh Tanna 2/48). Result: Income Tax won by 6 wickets.