In a major upset,Collage Group trounced a star-studded ONGC team comprising Gautam Gambhir,Mithun Manhas,Ajay Ratra and Sumit Narwal by 8 wickets in the semi-final of the 35th Lala Raghubir Singh cricket tournament on Wednesday. Chasing 174 in 40 overs,Collage won the match with nearly six overs to spare. Batting first,ONGC lost their top three batsmen within the first 8 overs. Gambhir was out for 6,caught in the deep pulling a short ball a delivery that has troubled him of late. Delhi Ranji player Pawan Suyal,20,who dismissed Gambhir,said: I was not trying to bounce him out. I just wanted to use a change in delivery and it worked. Gambhir,who already had two other low scores in this tournament,which he considers match practice for the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka,shrugged off his performance saying,I still have my match tomorrow in the Goswami tournament. That ONGC even reached 174 was due to a gritty unbeaten 57 by former India wicketkeeper Ajay Ratra,who stood firm at one end as wickets fell regularly on the other. Left-arm seamer Suyal was the standout bowler for Collage,taking three wickets. The Collage openers began the chase cautiously against Sumit Narwal and Vikramjeet Malik,conceding two maidens in the first six overs. Mukul Dagar tried to break the shackles against left-arm spinner Praveen Gupta but was caught off the second ball he faced. Opener Rameez Nemat,who plays for Jharkhand in Ranji Trophy,and number three Kamal Beniwal refused to take chances against Gupta,who was getting the ball to drift and turn sharply. Nemat said,We decided to play out Praveens overs rather than give him more wickets. As Gupta bowled six overs on the trot,Collage crawled to 48 after 15 overs and using up two powerplays in the process. Nemat and Beniwal then gradually opened up,until Gupta was re-introduced and immediately dismissed Beniwal in the 22nd over. But Nemat and new batsman Mahesh Rawat kept up the scoring rate as Collage raced from 124 in 28 overs to 170 at the start of the 35th. Nemat led the assault: after scoring his half-century in 71 balls,he scored his next 47runs in 26. Fittingly,it was Man of the Match Nemat who scored the winning runs with a cover drive boundary off left-arm spinner Puneet Mehra. But Nemat was third-time unlucky as he narrowly missed a century again. He has scored 82,90 and an unbeaten 96 in this match so far in the tournament. Brief Scores: ONGC 173 all out in 38.5 overs (Ajay Ratra 57 n.o.,Puneet Mehra 26,Pawan Suyal 3/37,Sanjay Gill 2/30); Collage Group 175 for 2 in 34.3 overs (Rameez Nemat 96 n.o.,Mahesh Rawat 33 n.o.,Praveen Gupta 2/19)
