Venky's pacer Rohan Matale gets first hat-trick of tournament

The third league match of the Avinash Bhosale International Limited (ABIL) Corporate Cricket Challenge Cup saw Venky’s defeat Tech Mahindra comfortably by 24 runs on Wednesday. Winning the toss, Venky’s decided to bat first on a pitch that was damp owing to the overcast conditions that prevailed in the morning.

Even though the conditions were ideal for swing and seam bowling the bowlers from Tech Mahindra couldn't take any advantage of the same as Venky’s skipper Arvind Chauhan took charge of the innings by scoring a defiant 36 runs off 25 balls with seven hits to the fence.

Southpaw Vivek Deshmukh also played a power-packed innings with some awesome stroke making. He scored a fiery 33 runs off just 17 balls with one four and 3 sixes. After the dismissal of Arvind and Vivek, Rohit Gund stepped into the driver's seat and played a critical innings scoring 34 runs off 25 balls with one four and 3 sixes. At the end of their stipulated 20 overs Venky's managed to score an imposing total of 163 . Sachin Pimprikar of Tech Mahindra scalped three wickets for 38 runs making him the pick of the bowlers. Emmanuel David (2/17) and Sachin Kulkarni (2/22) chipped in with crucial contributions with the ball for Tech Mahindra.

Tech Mahindra lost the plot completely when they came in to bat, right from the first over, when they lost their three opening batsmen.

The rattled Tech Mahindra team was feeling the pinch of the soaring run rate in as early as the second over when the dismal scoreboard read three down for one. Sachin Pimprikar then walked in for Tech Mahindra and saved his team the blushes.

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