The Royal Phantoms came close to losing against the Hampton Falcons in their Sher-e-Punjab T20 Cup match but eventually managed to get a 16-run victory in Mohali on Friday, July 14. In the first innings, Phantoms set an impressive target of 199 courtesy of Anshul Chaudhary's 91 off just 40 balls.
Chaudhari smashed 10 fours and 6 sixes with an impressive strike rate of 227.5 in the first innings. He kept the pressure on the bowlers of the opponents despite his team losing wickets at regular intervals. After Anshul, Pukhraj Mann was the highest run-getter in the team with 22 runs in 13 balls.
Among the bowlers, Harpreet Brar, who also turns out for Punjab Kings, took three wickets while Ayush Goyal bagged three wickets for their team. Brar was also the most economical bowler with a rate of 6.3 and having conceded 25 runs.
The opponents started very well, with openers Taranveer Singh and Ramar Arora setting up a partnership of 50 runs. But Siddarth Kaul got the all-important breakthrough to send Raman back to the pavilion for 14 runs. It was the first of his four wickets as skipper Mandeep Singh departed after scoring just 1 run.
Taranveer completed his half-century but lost his wicket almost immediately. This effectively ended his team's fight for the match but they kept the fight going for as long as they could. Harjas Tandon smashed 17 runs in 7 balls, including 2 sixes, and at a strike rate of 242.9.
But by then it was already too late. In the end, the side were restricted to just 182 runs.
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