Hardik Pandya, a star all-around player for India, triumphantly returned to competitive cricket on Monday for the first time since the ICC Cricket World Cup. He did this by leading Reliance 1 to victory in the 18th DY Patil T20 Cup 2024, which was held at the DY Patil Stadium. Due to an ankle injury, Pandya did not play any international cricket after the World Cup stage match against Bangladesh in October. However, he led by example, taking two wickets for 22 runs as Reliance 1 chose to field and held BPCL to 126 in 18.3 overs. For Reliance, Dev Lakra (3-31) and Piyush Chawla (3-15) also claimed wickets. Anukul Roy led the BPCL in scoring with a perfect 30.
Naman Dhir and Nehal Wadhera’s 51-run opening stand (50: 32b, 11×4) helped Reliance respond effectively. Reliance dropped from 87 for one to 113 for eight, a middle-order collapse. After the eighth wicket fell, Pandya batted late in the order, having held himself back earlier in the order. After that, Pandya (3* in four balls) and Chawla combined to guide Reliance to a valiant two-wicket victory. Income Tax defeated Bank of Baroda by 40 runs in the other match held at the University Ground. For Income Tax, Anuj Rawat (116*, 57 balls, 14×4, 6×6) was the hero. Rawat led the Tax to 238 for four in the innings after sharing vital stands with multiple batters.
In their response, Bank of Baroda lost wickets at regular intervals. They never got going and, in the end, fell 40 runs short of the target. For Income tax, the best bowlers were Ishan Porel (2-22) and Lalit Yadav (2-45).
Brief Scores:
Group A: BPCL 126 in 18.3 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 24, Anukul Roy 30*; Dev Lakra 3-31, Piyush Chawla 3-15, Hardik Pandya 2-22) lost to Reliance 1 128-8 in 15 overs (Nehal Wadhera 50, Naman Dhir 20, Piyush Chawla 16*; Aakash Mishra 5-17, Shreyas Gopal 2-37) by two wickets.
