Manav scores 102 in PMG’s win

Even while he was batting well,the odd delivery would square him up completely giving evidence of the difficulty in playing. After his innings,Shukla said that batting was difficult as the pitch had cracked in several parts and the ball was bouncing and turning sharply. For the PMG side Jagrit Anand picked up 2 wickets with his right arm medium bowling.

After their innings,the South Delhi side were confident of victory,particularly because of the fact that their side was packed with spin options. They did not have the best of starts and had lost their first three wickets for 75 runs within the first 16 overs. Manav Sharma though had different ideas taking the game to the opposition. His attacking stroke-play did give South Delhi Colts their fair share of chances,but their fielding on Tuesday was poor and they grassed as many as he gave. Playing for South Delhi Colts,Nischal Gaur the former Himachal Pradesh skipper said “ It was not like he did not give many chances. We failed to take them and got complacent”

Once Manav had got set,he proved impossible to dismiss. With Prashant Bhandari he steadily moved PMG closer to their target. He moved into fifth gear in the 29th over,when PMG needed 80 runs to win at a run rate of nearly eight. His shots of the day were a a pair of lofted sixes over cover that even opposition player Gaur described as “completely effortless”.

Even towards the end when only a less than thirty runs were required and the PMG batsmen set about comitting hara-kiri losing 4 wickets for next to nothing,Manav stayed resolute,guiding PMG to victory with three balls to spare.

Brief scores: South Delhi 234 for seven in 40 overs (Shiva Kant Shukla 67 n.o,Rahul Vaidya 43,Jagrit Anand 2/37); PMG 237 for 7 in 39.3 overs (Manav Sharma 102 n.o Prashant Bhandari 36,Shiva Kant Shukla 3/37)