A superb century by southpaw Tariq ur Rehman (119) enabled Air India to flypast Central Revenue Sports Board by 68 runs

Rakesh Sanghi28-Sep-2000A superb century by southpaw Tariq ur Rehman (119) enabled Air India to flypast Central Revenue Sports Board by 68 runs. In the process they booked aberth in the semifinals in the 7th JP Atray Memorial tournament at theSector 16 cricket stadium in Chandigarh today.Rakesh Jolly, skipper of CRSB XI won the toss and elected to field.Tariq ur Rehman and Dheeraj Jadhav opened the innings for Air India.Bhupinder Singh (sr) who was bowling an excellent line and length wasrewarded when he bowled Jadhav (16) with the scoreboard reading 24 after8.3 overs. Piyush Soneji joined Tariq ur Rehman and started offconfidently. The duo added 86 runs off 114 balls and provided stability tothe innings. But while trying to pull a ball which was not exactly short,Soneji was trapped in front of the wicket by Dahiya with the score 110 in26.5 overs. Piyush scored 34 in 55 balls which included two hits to the fence.Former Test player Praveen Amre and India under-19 player Neeraj Patel bothwent cheaply. Sairaj Bahuthule joined Tariq ur Rehman who was holding thefort at one end and they started scoring briskly. The duo added 102 runs injust 88 balls. Bahuthule remained unbeaten with 51 which came off just 47balls with the help of six powerful hits to the fence. Tariq ur Rehmanafter completing his 50 off 72 balls changed gear and played a number ofelegant shots to all parts of the ground. But he miscued a pull shot offRanade and was caught at mid wicket by Praveen Thapar. His knock came off136 balls which included 13 boundaries and two huge sixes. Air Indiafinally posted a respectable total of 249 for six wickets in 50 overs.Praveen Thapper of CRSB XI was the most successful bowler as he capturedthree wickets for 43 runs.Chasing a target at the rate of five runs an over, CRSB XI lost the wicketof Bhupinder Singh (sr) in the seventh over. The pinch hitter, trying toclear the mid off fielder, ballooned the ball and was caught by Bahuthuleoff the bowling off HS Sodhi for just four runs. Satrajit Lehri joinedPadamjit and the pair scored at a nifty pace by adding 56 runs off 74balls. Then Lehri, trying for a big heave was brilliantly caught by NeerajPatel of Bahuthule with the scoreboard reading 77.Amre applied a double spin attack in the shape of Narender Hirwani andBahuthule which paid dividends as both captured two wickets. Off spinnerPritam Gandhe bowled a tight line and length and claimed four vital wicketsfor just 38 runs.Except Padanjit Sherawat (53), none of the other batsman stayed at thewicket as the CSRB innings folded up for 180 runs with 2.5 overs tospare.Tariq-Ur-Rehman was given the man of the match award.