Opener Saidesh Bhagat’s unbeaten 52* & good job by the bowlers helps Thane City Police win the Thane Police Shield Tournament ‘18

Played at the Central Maidan thane, Thane City Police and Thane Gramin Police took on each other for the all important encounter. An interesting competition was bound to happen with Thane City Police winning the toss and electing to bat first.

Their decision to bat first was spot on as they notched up a very good total of 192/7 in 20overs. Opening the innings, Saidesh Bhagat scored an anchoring knock of 52* off 44balls laced with 5fours and 1six. Saidesh remained till unbeaten till the end holding the ship as batsman from the other end kept on changing. The rest of the players also gave quick contributions with Hemant Sonavane’s quick 32 off 17balls (5fours, 1six) coming in very handy during the slog overs.

Defending a total of 193 which is really competitive in a T20 game and especially in the finals, the pressure was more on the chasing team as its an above par total. However, Thane Gramin Police succumbed to the pressure of chasing at 10runs per over as they were restricted to 153/9 in 20overs. Once again the bowlers of Thane Police co-ordinated well together as Ram Patil, Vaibhav Bane and Prashant Suryavanshi took 2wkts each while Hemant and Avinash chipped in with a wicket each.

Thane City Police won the finals by 49runs and win the Thane Police Shield Tournament on the back of collective team perfomance throughout the series. In the finals the bowlers again did an excellent job with Saidesh and Hemant contributing with match winning knocks.

CRICKETGRAPH