Jubilee Post News & Views
Lucknow. Favourites Hindustan Times stormed into the final of the SBI Cup Media Premier League, defeating hosts LSJA XI by six wickets, at the KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium here today.
In the second semi-final on Sunday, Times of India will take on Dainik Jagran at 9.30 a.m. Final is slated to be played on January 31.
Batting first after losing the toss, LSJA XI could make 112 in 18.3 overs with skipper Abhishek Mishra hitting a breezy 19-ball 32 with the help of six hits to the fence before being caught amazingly by pacer Manish Singh on his own bowling. Mishra’s exit opened the flood gate for Hindustan Times bowlers as the wicket kept tumbling on regular intervals from one end. Dinesh Verma (14), Avinash Sharma (13) and Deepak Taneja (10) could touch the double figure mark then.
Once again left-arm pacer Manish Singh turned out to be the breaker-in-chief for Hindustan Times, bagging 3/23, whereas skipper Abhinav Shukla (2/19) and Rohit Singh (2/24) shared four wickets between them.
In reply, Abhinav and Sharad Deep gave a sound start to Hindustan Times’ innings, stitching together 28 runs for the opening wicket before Deep being caught by Abhishek Mishra in covers off Deepak Taneja.
The wicket, however, didn’t make any difference to Hindustan Times as Abhinav (38, 31b, 5×4) along with man-of-the-match Anshul Kumar (37*, 40b, 4×4) took the score to 72 in 10 overs before Abhinav getting out on “Mankading” by Abhishek Mishra. Rohit Kumar Singh then made 18-ball 14 with the help of two boundaries as Hindustan Times romped home in 17.1 overs.
