In the crucial 2nd game of the day, Menara Devils won the toss and chose to bat first against TKCC Royals. The Menara batsmen came in with a very aggressive mind-set but a very good burst of fast, short-pitched bowling by Aaresh (3/28) had them reeling, with their top 3 big guns succumbing early to a combination of their own aggression & the bowling. A lot of Wides & a few shots by Vishav (19) helped Menara recover but Maneesh Tripathi (3/20) continued his great run with the ball to have Menara on the ropes at 73/6 after 10 overs. It took a fighting knock by Deepak Khullar (28) to help Menara reach a fightable score of 129 all out.
Despite losing Neeraj early, Gaurav Pathak (49) got TKCC Royals off to a blistering start. He played out the good balls but took full toll of the bad ones and by the time he got out, his side was well on-course at 75/2 at the half-way mark. He was given good support by Maneesh Tripathi at the other end. Some good wicket-keeping by Deepak & bowling by Mohit Keshwani (2/33) triggered a mini-collapse, but a mature knock of 37 not out by Pallav Malhotra ensured TKCC Royals win comfortably by 6 wickets & with more than 3 overs to spare.
Thanks to S. Gopalakrishnan & Suresh Subramanian for umpiring the game
