Payyade Sports Club stormed into the final by recording a comprehensive 222-run victory against hosts Mumbai Police on the second day of their semi-final clash of the Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd sponsored 71st Police Invitation Shield Cricket Tournament at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana ground.
Payyade who had scored 289 for the loss of five wickets in 56 overs on the opening day, batted aggressively when play resumed on Sunday morning and they scored rapidly, adding another 128 runs for the loss of three more wickets from the remaining 14 overs to pile up a massive score of 417 runs for 8 wickets from their 70 overs.
Hersh Tank (77), Parag Khanapurkar (69), Akash Parkar (54), Siddhesh Lad (46), Vinayak Bhoir (unbeaten 43) and Akhil Herwadkar (41) were the batters who were responsible to prop the Payyade innings. Spinner Yashasvi Jaiswal (3/91), Nitish Salekar (3/106) and Mayur Sanap (2/56) claimed the wickets for the cops.
In reply, the Mumbai Police batsmen were unable to stay long in the middle and play responsible innings and were bowled out for paltry 195 in 52.1 overs. Junior India cricketer Yashaswi Jaiswal top-scored for the cops with a disciplined 62 runs and Mayur Sanap chipped in with runs 43 runs. For Payyade the wickets were shared by Shubham Ranjane (3/31), Badre Alam Khan (3/32) and Vishal Dabholkar (3/51) as they completed the 222 runs victory.
Meanwhile, Prasad Pawar’s unbeaten century knock of 115 runs powered Parkhophene Cricketers to a five-wicket win against MIG Cricket Club in the other semi-final. Batting first MIG scored 255 for 9 in 70 overs with Gaurav Jathar completing his century scoring 133 runs. In reply Parkhophene riding on Pawar’s heroics easily achieved their target scoring 258 for 5 in 65 overs.
