DY Patil T20 Cup: Hardik Pandya's all-round show lights up RCP Stadium

Ghansoli: Hardik Pandya announced his comeback to competitive cricket with a fantastic all-round performance for Reliance 1 in their final league match against CAG in Group C of the 16th DY Patil T20 Cup at the RCP Stadium in Ghansoli (Navi Mumbai). Thanks to Pandya's all-round performance Reliance 1 won the match by 101 runs.

Pandya slammed 105 off 39 balls with eight boundaries and 10 sixes when Reliance 1 batted first, even as chairman of selectors MSK Prasad watched him in action. Reliance 1 posted 252-5 in their 20 overs. Anmolpreet Singh (88: 50b, 8x4, 4x6) was the other major contributor. The CAG chase never really took off as Pandya then claimed a fine haul (5-26) to bowl them out for 151 as Reliance 1 remained unbeaten in Group C.

Earlier in the day, in a Group D clash Western Railway chased down Canara Bank's 174-7 in just 13.1 overs to seal their quarter-final place. For Canara Bank the big contributor was Abhinav Manohar (67: 40b, 4x4, 6x6). The Western Railway chase was fashioned by an unbeaten 94 by Asat Pathan off 39 balls (8x4, 7x6).

The quarter-finals will be staged on Wednesday at the DY Patil Campus in Nerul (Navi Mumbai). At the University Ground Income Tax will play Western Railway in the morning and in the afternoon Indian Oil will take on Indian Navy. At the stadium, BPCL and RBI will clash for a place in the semi-final and then in the afternoon Reliance 1 will play DY Patil A in the final quarter-final clash.

BRIEF SCORES

At RCP Stadium, Ghansoli

Group D: Canara Bank 174-7 in 20 overs (Abhinav Manohar 67, Raajoo Bhatkal 26, Md Saif 23; Drushant Soni 3-31, Hitesh Kadam 2-22) lost to Western Railway 176-2 in 13.1 overs (Asat Khan Pathan 94 n.o., Jay Chauhan 40 n.o.)-by eight wickets

Also see – PSL points table

Group C: Reliance 1 252-5 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 105, Anmolpreet Singh 88, Saurabh Tiwary 26; Debrabata Pradhan 3-56, Mehjoor Ali Sofi 2-34) bt CAG 151 in 17.2 overs (DB Prashant 37, Abhinav Bali 29; Jaskaranveer 24; Hardik Pandya 5-26, Anukul Roy 2-13, Prince Balwant Rai 2-30)-by 101 runs

QUARTER-FINAL FIXTURES FOR 4 MARCH (TOMORROW)

At University Ground: 11 am: Income Tax (B2) v Western Railway (D1); 3.45 pm: Indian Oil (A1) v Indian Navy (C2)

At DY Patil Stadium: 11 am: BPCL (B1) v RBI (D2); 3.45 pm: DY Patil A (A2) v Reliance 1 (C1)