Skipper Rupesh’s 54 & Harsh’s 5/2 hand over a fine victory to All India Pharmacist Association in the Pharma Shield Tournament

AIRPA (All India registered Pharmacist Association) & Gladiators faced each for a crucial match at Oval Maidan in Mumbai. Team Gladiators won the toss & elected to field first in order to restrict AIRPA to a low score.

However, Team AIRPA was off to a good start with their openers Nagaraju Sada & skipper Rupesh Khadgi giving a perfect start. Nagaraju scored an aggressive 44 off just 27 balls while it was their right handed skipper who played the Dravid’s role in the team scoring an unbeaten 54* off just 58 balls. Rupesh remained till the end & smashed 8 fours in his knock to push team total to 169/5 in 20 overs. Rajesh from Gladiators was the pick of the bowlers with 2/17.

Chasing 170 at more than 8 runs per over, AIRPA got the better of the opposition as Gladiators were all out for mere 33 runs. Left-arm leg spinner Harsh Mishra bowled a magical spell of 5/2 cleaning up the entire batting line-up of Gladiators. Whats more! The icing on the cake to further dent the damage was he took a hat-trick too which completely turned the momentum in their favor.

Harsh Mishra’s spell must have reminded the Gladiators of Australian leggie Steve O’Keefe who similarly troubled the Indian batsman in the recent test series. Cricketgraph congratulates Harsh & Rupesh for their brilliant performance & also wishes the entire team all the luck for a great series ahead.