Face2News/Chandigarh
Struggling at 49/6, a fiery knock from wicketkeeper batter Pradeep Yadav (64 runs off 33 balls) failed to deliver a win for UT boys as Railways registered a thrilling five wickets victory at the ongoing Syed Mustaq Ali T20 tournament being played at Vizag on Tuesday. This is Chandigarh's second defeat in five matches.
Earlier, Railways won the toss and invited Chandigarh to bat. Team's top to middle order – Arsalan Khan (1), Skipper Manan Vohra (16), Shivam Bhambri (5), Amrit Lubana (1), Raj Angad Bawa (11) and Gaurav Puri (9) completely shattered against the pace attack of Railways.
A valiant partnership (96 runs off 47 balls) between Pradeep Yadav and Nikhil Sharma steered the score to 145. Pradeep added 64 runs with the help of six sixes and four fours while Nikhil Sharma remained unbeaten to add 36 runs with two sixes and three fours. Jagjit Sandhu also smashed 12 runs off five balls to take Chandigarh to a respectable read of 162/7.
In reply, Railways also had a disappointing start when Sandhu drew the first blood without troubling the scorer. UT bowlers maintained their dominance for the first eight overs and sent back four players for mere 54 runs. Ashutosh Sharma (20) was just bringing Railways back on track but became the second victim of Raj Angad Bawa (2/47) with 83/5 on the board. Unbeaten wicketkeeper batter Upender Yadav (52) and AR Pandey (35) stitched 80 runs partnership in 40 balls to seal the win in the 19th over.
Chandigarh's sixth match is against Odisha on December 5.
