Sports Round-up

72 teams to contest PYC Snooker Challenge

A record number of 72 teams will take part in the ninth edition of the PYC Snooker Challenge 2012. The tournament has a prize fund of Rs 2.3 lakh. Asian Games silver medallist Yasin Merchant,former Asian Champion Devendra Joshi along with Shivan Arora and Kumar Shinde amongst others will participate in the tournament. The 72 teams will be divided into 16 groups. Two teams from each group will qualify for the knockout rounds. The league stage matches will be played on a best of three format while the knockouts will be played on a best of five format. The winning team will receive Rs 50,000 and the runner-up will get Rs 30,000.

Maharashtra Cricket Association makes four changes to u-25 squad

The Maharashtra Cricket Association has made four changes to the u-25 team that will take on Orissa in Malvan on November 2 in the Colonel CK Nayudu trophy. Wicketkeeper Vishant More will be leading the side. The selectors have picked Avdhoot Dandekar,Ganesh Kukade,Sangram Atitkar and Nasir Momin as the new faces. Chirag Khurana,Aditya Dole,Shrikant Munde and Swapnil Gugale have been dropped. Vishant More (c/wk),Avdhoot Dandekar,Rahul Tripathi,Ganesh Kukade,Ankit Bawne,Sangram Atitkar,Nasir Momin,Nikit Dhumal,Prayag Bhati,Ganesh Gaikwad,Sunil Yadav,Satyajit Bacchav,Nitish Salekar,Abhijit Salvi,Pushkaraj Chavan is the new Maharashta u-25 team.

Maharashtra u-19 women’s challenge ends with loss

The Maharashtra women’s u-19 team lost its final group match against Andhra Pradesh in Hyderabad. Batting first,Maharashtra posted 149 runs riding on opener Smriti Mandhana’s 61 runs. However,the rest of the batters failed to give Mandhana support and Maharashtra could not even bat their full quota of 50 overs. Andhra Pradesh had no problem in chasing down the small total. Opener Ch Jhansi Lakshmi scored 42 runs and N Anusha chipped in with an unbeated 43 runs to take Andhra to the target with 61 balls to spare.

(Compiled by Chinmay Brahme)