The Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup started on Thursday, July 13, with a brilliant win for BLV Blasters over the Royal Phantom in the first match of the day. The second game saw the Agri Kings Knights set a massive target of 203 for their opponents JK Super Strikers in Mohali. The side came very close to chasing down this massive target but were prevented by some good death bowling.
For the Blasters, it was their middle order who bailed them out with Gitansh Khera scoring 77 in 48 balls. He was ably supported by Ramandeep Singh, who scored just 53 runs off 34 balls. However, a lot of the plaudits also lie with Sohraab Dhaliwal, who hit an unbeaten 43 off just 15 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes to his name.
Dhaliwal struck the ball at a strike rate of 286.7 to take his team to a total above 200. For the bowlers, Sanvir Singh took two wickets while Harry Dhaliwal and Jassinder Singh took a wicket each.
The run-chase was a thrilling affair as well. The openers Vishwapratap Singh and Jaskaranvir Paul had a 115-run partnership and looked set to help chase down such a massive target. But the breakthrough came in the 13th over as Jaskaranvir was sent back to the pavilion for 58 runs courses of Gurnoor Brar, who turns out for Punjab Kings in the Indian Premier League (IPL).
It was the first of four wickets for the right-arm pacer, who attacked the batters with his bowling after getting the all-important breakthrough. Skipper Sanvir Singh (9), wicketkeeper-batter Anmol Malhotra (9), Gaurav Markan (3) and Aryaman Singh (8) all went cheaply as Vishwapratap kept their team in the game for as long as he could.
Brar also got the wicket of Vishwapratap in the final over of the match to completely take the game away from their opponents. By then, the batter had completed his ton off 57 balls, with 7 fours and 6 sixes to his name.
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