The USN Indians won their second successive game in thrilling fashion, with a one-run victory over Haridwar Spring Elmas at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium on Wednesday evening.
After an early start, the rain stopped the play, and although the game got underway at 11.50 am, the rain saw it delayed during the USN Indians’ innings. Under these circumstances, Haridwar Spring Elmas had their target revised to 130 runs in 66 balls with the Powerplay limited to the first three overs. For Elmas, this was a match for survival, and a win would keep them in contention for the knockout stages as so far, they had won only one in their last three matches.
Elmas was under pressure when he lost three wickets within the Powerplay in his chase to hunt for a tough target. However, it was not just the three wickets that gave away in the early going as a promising partnership between Shashwat Dangwal (20 off 10) and Saurabh Rawat (16 off 10) was chopped off by Prashant Chauhan with successive dismissals.
As the required run rate exceeded 15, Kunalveer Singh started a counterattack, hitting a few boundaries and briefly reviving his team’s chances with a quick 23 off just eight balls before falling in the ninth over.
And after that, it was all hi-tech. After Girish Rauturi launched a four-sixes assault on Agrim Tiwari in the penultimate over, the match turned thrilling. USN Indians managed to hold them to 128/7 with unbeaten 35 off 19 balls from him and went on for a dramatic win.
The light rain reduced the game to 16 overs a side, with the Powerplay to cover the first five overs, earlier on in the match. The USN Indians was put into bat by the Haridwar Spring Elmas and started with some early boundaries but lost two wickets by the end of the fourth over.
Openers were in dominant hands at another spot: Yuvraj Chaudhary gave the momentum with a strike rate exceeding 200. USN Indians scored 64 for 2 in six overs; the rain helped shorten this game further to 11 overs each. The delay worked well as the game got shortened, and just after resuming, Aryan Sharma was out, and this reduced further to 11-11.
Yuvraj Chaudhary, meanwhile, continued his explosive batting and finished on 74* off 33 balls. This included five fours and six sixes as he pushed his team to a good total of 125/6.
