Navi Mumbai, Feb 27 (IANS) India batters Rahul Tripathi and Shreyas Iyer’s efforts went in vain as they could not prevent BPCL from suffering a narrow two-wicket defeat at the hands of Income Tax in the DY Patil T20 Cup at DY Patil Stadium in Nerul on Friday.

After being put into batting first, BPCL posted 151/8 in their 20 overs. Tripathi top-scored with 48 off 37 balls with four boundaries and two sixes. He also shared a 62 run fifth wicket stand with left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Anukul Roy. The other big contributor with the bat for BPCL was their skipper Shreyas Iyer (32).

For Income Tax, the best bowlers were Saurabh Dubey (4-26) and Pankaj Jaiswal (2-28). In reply, Income Tax were taken to victory by wicketkeeper-batters Anuj Rawat and Harvik Desai, as they put on a partnership of 55 runs for the second wicket.

India’s left-arm spin bowling all-rounder Shahbaz Ahmed played a vital hand of 24 runs, as Income Tax overhauled the target with two wickets to spare. Anukul chipped in with 2-19 for BPCL while Akhil Herwadkar ended up with figures of 2-31.

At the DY Patil University ground, thanks to Kunal Singh Rathore’s 93 not out, Nirlon upstaged the Indian Navy by a massive 105 runs. The tournament will now be on a break on the weekend, with the final round of Group matches slated to be staged on Monday.

Brief Scores:

At DY Patil Stadium – Group D: BPCL 151/8 in 20 overs (Rahul Tripathi 48, Shreyas Iyer 32; Saurabh Dubey 4-26, Pankaj Jaiswal 2-28) lost to Income Tax 152/8 in 17.2 overs (Anuj Rawat 32, Harvik Desai 30; Anukul Roy 2-19, Akhil Herwadkar 2-31) by two wickets

At DY Patil University – Group C: Nirlon 227-6 in 20 overs (Kunal Singh Rathore 93 not out, Amogh Bhatkal 44) beat Indian Navy 122 in 14.5 overs (Nakul Sharma 40 not out, Shubham Rohilla 29; Varun Rao 4-22, Dhrumil Matkar 2-18) by 105 runs

–IANS

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