New India Assurance beats MTNL

Pune, Mar 17 (UNI) An all-round performance by Ranjit Gharat of New India Assurance enabled this team to snatch a slender two-wicket win over MTNL today in the league phase of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) limited overs all-India cricket tournament being played here.

Gharat, who bowled keeping to a line and length, claimed four wickets for 43, and restricted MTNL to a modest 187 for nine in the stipulated 40 overs. He was helped by Kedar Hudlikar who claimed three for 26.

New India Assurance in reply, coasted to 188 for eight in 36.4 overs with Deepak Shetty contributing a brisk 52 while Gharat hammered a sizzling knock of 30 to see his side through with 3.2 overs to spare. For MTNL, Amit Singh's two for 20 and Suhas Parulekar two for 31 shared the spoils.

In the other league ties, Airport Authorities of India posted a thrilling two wickets win over Segreni Colliries, while Central Warehousing Corporation of India outplayed HUDCO snatching a thumping ten wicket win.

Brief Score: Poona Club Ground Segreni Collieries 225 for 9 in 40 overs (E J Arun Kumar 27, Niranjan Kumar 45, G S Narayanan 49, T Prasad 2/30, Atul Kanojia 2/39, Prashant Dikate 2/52) lost to Airports Authority of India 226 for 8 in 39.4 overs (Rajpal Singh 65, Virender Sonwane 32, Shailender Kumar 40 and A Sriniwas 3/34).

Jail Ground: HUDCO 86 in 26.1 overs (Rajnish Saxena 23, Ravi Ranjan 13, Naresh Khanna 2/23, Ashwin Anand 4/6, Harpreet Singh 2/27 and Arun Sethi 2/11) lost to Central Warehousing Corporation 88 for no loss in 16.1 overs. Rajiv Vinayak remained not out at 40 and Lalit Yadav 42 not out.

Telco Ground: MTNL 187 for 9 in 40 overs (Nandkishore Saraf 42, Suhas Parulekar 41, Santosh Bhatkar 37, Ravinder Pawar 31, Kedar Hudlikar 3/26, Ranjit Gharat 4/43) lost to New India Assurance 188 for 8 in 36.4 overs (Deepak Shetty 52, Ranjit Gharat 30, Pritam Karande 25, Amit Singh 2/20 and Suhas Parulekar 2/31).

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