The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : Deshpande dazzles in RCA's win

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Deshpande dazzles in RCA's win

NEW DELHI: Vaibhav Deshpande produced an outstanding innings to guide Rajasthan Cricket Association (RCA) to a five-wicket victory over Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the 35th Lala Raghubir cricket tournament at the Modern School ground here on Wednesday. The win carried RCA into the semifinals.

In testing conditions — hot and humid — Deshpande batted with the maturity of a seasoned campaigner. It was a difficult pitch to bat on, but Deshpande scored 95 off 66 balls with eight fours and five sixes as RCA comfortably overhauled ONGC's total of 194.

Walking in at 48 for one at the fall of Pranay Sharma (26), the left-handed Deshpande took charge. He lost a confident Ankit Lamba (51) at 105 but found a steady partner in Robin Bisht. The two added 57 before Bisht nicked an intended hook.

RCA lost Ashok Menaria cheaply while the elegant Deshpande was the fifth man out but there were no further alarms as ONGC was not at its best.

“The boys have been playing non-stop cricket and we have too many key players on the injury list. But, I will not make any excuses for the defeat. Deshpande batted exceptionally well,” said ONGC manager Gautam Wadhera.

Nice to do well

“I just looked to play the ball on merit. I chose my strong areas to hit and it was nice to play an important part. It was tough out there,” said Deshpande, yet to find a job despite some excellent performances for his State team for the last three years.

For RCA coach Tarak Sinha, it was “selection justified” since he backed Deshpande. “He is a compact cricketer. He batted flawlessly but I would have loved to see him finish the job,” said Sinha.

The scores:

ONGC 194 for seven in 40 overs (Radhey Gupta 45, Tanmay Srivastava 44, Sandeep Sharma 33, Madhur Khatri three for 34) lost to RCA 196 for five in 32.5 overs (Vaibhav Deshpande 95, Ankit Lamba 51). — Special Correspondent

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