Irfan Pathan’s firing batting rescued the India Legends as his brilliant batting snatched a remarkable victory against the Sri Lanka Legends during the third game of the Road Safety World Series 2020 at Dr DY Patil Sports Academy (Mumbai).
After winning the toss, India Legends captain Sachin Tendulkar decided to field first. While Sri Lanka Legends scored 138/8 (20 overs), India Legends chased down that target in 18.4 overs after losing five wickets. From the Indian side, while Munaf Patel shined with the ball, Mohammad Kaif and Irfan Pathan played the crucial roles with the bat.
India Legends: Irfan Pathan scored 57 not out, Mohammad Kaif scored 46 runs
Chasing down the target, captain Sachin Tendulkar lost his wicket on the third ball of that innings without scoring a run. Another opener Virender Sehwag, who won the Player of the Match award in the last game, was run out for just three runs. The left-handed batsman Yuvraj Singh also lost his wicket for only one run.
Struggling on 19/3, Mohammad Kaif and Sanjay Bangar put the crucial 43 runs partnership for the fourth wicket. While Bangar scored 18 runs, Kaif lost his wicket after playing the fighting knock of 46 runs off 45 balls (4 fours and only six).
While India Legends were struggling on 81/5 in 15th overs, the brilliant sixth-wicket partnership between Irfan Pathan and Manpreet Gony helped the team to snatch the game incredibly. They put the 58 runs partnership for the unbroken sixth-wicket which helped the team to win the game with eight balls remaining.
At one stage, India Legends needed to score 39 runs in the last three overs. But in the 18th over of that innings, Farveez Maharoof conceded 26 runs, and it took away the game from their hands. In that crucial game-changing over, while Pathan started with two consecutive sixes and a four, Gony smashed a sixer on the final ball of that over.
In the 19th over, Pathan hit three consecutive boundaries to Dilshan in the first three balls and then he took the winning single. While Pathan scored 57 not out off 31 balls (6 fours and 3 sixes), Gony remained not out on 11 runs off just eight balls.
Sri Lankan pacer Chaminda Vaas started the game in a top way as he had the bowling figures of 3-0-5-2. Also, Rangana Herath (1/22) and Sachithra Senanayake (1/19) took one wicket each, but those were not enough for the Sri Lanka Legends.
Sri Lanka Legends: Munaf Patel took four wickets
Sri Lankan openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Romesh Kaluwitharana provided a good start with 46 runs partnership for the first wicket. But once that partnership was broken, Sri Lanka Legends lost their other wickets at regular intervals.
While the skipper Dilshan scored 23 runs, Kaluwitharana played the knock of 21 runs. Chamara Kapugedera (23) was the only other man in that innings to score 20+ runs.
Among the India Legends’ bowlers, Munaf Patel (4/19) bagged four wickets while Zaheer Khan (1/35), Irfan Pathan (1/31), Manpreet Gony (1/19) and Sanjay Bangar (1/23) took one wicket each.
