Cheteshwar Pujara's century takes Indian Oil home despite Yuvraj Singh's blitz

In the opening game of the 13th Dr. D.Y Patil T20 tournament the University Ground in Mumbai, the Indian internationals were on the money in a high-scoring game. First, the Air Indian players Naman Ojha and Yuvraj Singh helped their side to post 180. In reply, Cheteshwar Pujara’s unbeaten century took Indian Oil home without any losing any wicket.

After been put into bat, Air India got off to a good start with Ojha and Manvinder Bisla putting on an 84-run stand for the opening wicket in 10.5 overs. Ojha struck 4 sixes in his 47-run knock off 28 balls which included 3 fours as well before getting stumped off Khizar Dafedar.

Bisla on other end anchored the innings with a 67. He struck 6 fours and 3 sixes in the 56 balls he faced before holing out of Gaurav Yadav. Yuvraj, who came out to bat at No.3 struggled in the initial part of his innings. He could yield only 6 runs in his first 16 balls but managed to reprieve for the dot balls by striking 3 fours and 3 sixes, all off Gaurav Yadav who was the pick of the Indian Oil bowlers with 2 wickets and was economical too except for Yuvraj Singh’s striking.

He faced 10 dots in his first 16 balls while the next 13 balls, he had just one dot and he scored 41 of those to help his side finish at 180/4.

Also read- Ranji Trophy 2016-17 semi-finals: Day 4 Review

Cheteshwar Pujara opened innings with his Under-19 World Cup teammate of 2006, Ravikant Shukla as they were in to chase 181. It actually kicked off in the 2nd over bowled by Badrey Aalam in which Pujara struck 3 fours in 4 balls while Ravikant hit a four and six after the first over bowled by Trivedi gave them just a run. From there, the Indian Oil’s scoring graph was always ahead of Air India as both the batters kept striking at least one boundary every over.

Pujara, who farmed the strike for most part of the innings, brought up his fifty with a six in 10th over off 39 balls while Ravikant completed his half century in 31 balls. Both the batsmen came hard at the bowlers including Yuvraj, who went for 12 runs in his only over as Pujara struck consecutive boundaries against him. Rajat Bhatia might have taken a breath of relief as he went for just 23 runs in the 4 overs he bowled.

Pujara was even more dangerous after his fifty as he hit 6 more fours and a six in his 2nd fifty which he scored just 30 balls. He brought up his century with a boundary off Yuvi on the 69th ball he faced. Badrey didn’t give a chance to Pujara to score the winning runs as he bowled wide and no-ball and Indian Oil won the game with 10 balls to spare. Shukla remained unbeaten on 64 off 39 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes while Pujara hit a total of 14 fours and 2 sixes in his 108-run knock which came in just 73 deliveries.

Brief Scores:

Air India: 180/4 in 20 overs (Manvinder Bisla 67, Naman Ojha 47, Yuvraj Singh 43*; Gaurav Yadav 2/38)

Indian Oil: 181/0 in 18.2 overs (Cheteshwar Pujara 108*, Ravikant Shukla 64*)