Ronak Panoly, Mazhar Hussain, and Renjith Mani star on the second day of the Dubai Cricket Council’s DCC XI Rapid Fire Division One tournament

By K. R. Nayar

Dubai Cricket Council’s DCC Starlets, riding on their skipper Ronak Panoly’s power-packed knock of 69 off just 19 balls with five boundaries and six sixes, defeated VTAC Volts by 23 runs. In the third match of the second day of the Dubai Cricket Council’s DCC XI Rapid Fire Division One tournament on Saturday at the Sevens ground, DCC Starlets got off to a winning start. In the second match, VTAC Volts’s opener Mazhar Hussain cracked a 50 off 29 balls with three sixes and four boundaries to ensure a seven wicket win over Lyari Kings.  In the first match of the day, Renjith Mani produced an allround show scoring 25 runs and taking two crucial wickets to record a 27 runs win over Pacific Group.

Ronak Panoly 

DCC Starlets Captain Ronak Panoly steals the show 
DCC Starlets consistent batsmen Ronak Panloy and Punya Mehra gave a good start putting on 67 runs in the first four overs. So dominant was Ronak Panoly’s that he scored 62 out of those 67 runs. He began his knock smashing the first two balls of the first over from Akshay Jotin to long off and long on boundaries. In the next over he hit Mazhar Hussain to two consecutive sixes off the second and third ball and also hit another six off the last ball of that over. 

Ronak Panoly also punished Saqlain Hyder for a four and a six in the third over and then smashed Darshan Pagarani for a six and a four in the fourth over. Darshan Pagarani struck back to remove Panoly with the last ball of that over by having him caught at deep midwicket by Mohammad Ajmal. In the sixth over, Darshan Pagarani also got Dhruv caught at long on by Syed Haider  for 2.

Punya Mehra who took the score to 104 in 8.1 overs got out to Mohammad Ajmal for 30. Mahzar Hussain got Adithya Shetty out for 4 while Ahaan Fernandes got run out to the last ball of the innings for 9. DCC Starlets thus posted a challenging 112 for 5 in the 10 overs.

VTCA Volts playing the second consecutive match of the day could not maintain the momentum needed to reach the target. Opener Mazhar Hussain fell in the third over at the score on 15 to Ronak Panoly for 7.  Opener Ryan Rasheed took the score to 32 but fell to Faisur Rahman for 17. Faisur Rahman went on to clean bowl Saqlain Hyder too for 19 at the score on 53 in 6.3 overs. 

Though Mohammad Ajmal hit 26 runs, wickets kept falling at the other end. Faisur Rahman trapped Veerapandian Arivalagan leg before for a duck while Izhan clean bowled Sheridan Hadfield for 5.  Aftr Riyas Ali got run out to Sailles Jaishankar.  Ronak Panoly returned to dimiss Darshan Pagarani for 8. In the end VTAC Volts could muster only 89 for 8 in the 10 overs and lost by 23 runs.

Brief scores:
DCC Starlets bt VTAC Volts by 23 runs. DCC Starlets 112 for 5 in 20 overs (Ronak Panoly 62, Punya Mehra 30, Darshan Pagarani 2 for 23) VTCA Volts 89 for 8 in 10 overs (Mohammad Ajmal 26, Ronak Panoly 2 for 16, Faisur Rahman 3 for 15) 
Player of the match:  Ronak Panoly

Mazhar Hussain high voltage knock for VTCA Volts

In the second match, VTCA Volts produced an impressive seven wicket win over Lyari Kings. VTAC Volts after opting to field had Lyari Kings opener Saeed Naeem caught by Mazhar Hussain off Akshay Jotin for 1. Opener and skipper Nael who was stroking well got out to Armaan Sajnani for 20. One-drop Ali Teepu fell four runs after, clean bowled by Saqlain Hyder for 15. At the same score Saqib Ashraf too became another Saqlain Hyder victim for a duck. 

Mazhar Hussain 

Moeez Waqar and Aziz Ansari took the score to 54 in 6.5 overs when Armaan Sajnani clean bowled Moeez Waqar for 6. Aziz Ansari who kept the scoreboard moving got run out to Saqlain Hyder for 28. Darshan Pagarani bowled Aqib Ashraf for 6 and Emmi for a duck off the last two deliveries of the innings to restrict Lyari Kings to 83 for 8 in 10 overs.

VTAC Volts were off to disastrous start with Emmi striking repeatedly.  He clean bowled opener Ryan Rasheed for a duck, then clean bowled Saqlain Hyder with the fifth ball of the first over. He also removed Sheridan Hadfield clean bowled for another duck. 

Three wickets down for just two runs, skipper Vinan Nair walked in and stayed on providing good support to Mazhar Hussain.  Soon Hussain unleashed his strokes and began to hit boundaries and sixes with ease. He remained unbeaten 50 and with Vinan Nair (16n.o) took their team to the target in 8.4 overs.  

Brief scores:
VTAC bt Lyari Kings by 7 wkts. Lyari Kings 83 for 8 in 10 overs (Nael 20, Aziz Ansari 28, Armaan Sajnani 2 for 20, Saqlain Hyder 2 for 9, Darshan Pagarani 2 for 15) VTAC Volts 84 for 3 in 8.4 overs (Mazhar Hussain 50n.o, Emmi 3 for 6)
Player of the match: Mazhar Hussain

Skipper Renjith Mani’s allround show for Colatta Chocolates 
The first match of the day saw Colatta Chocolates opting to bat first after winning the toss against Pacific Group. Though they lost opener Shinto George for a duck, clean bowled by Akif Raja, skipper Renjith Mani kept the score board moving at a brisk pace. He hit 25 runs before being bowled by Muhammad Mudassar.  

Renjith Mani 

Consistent Syam Ramesh did not stay long as he got bowled to Akif Raja for 4. One-drop Hari Prasanth scored 28 off 14 balls before falling to Mujahid Amin but he had taken the score to 66. At the same score Gopakumar Gopalakrishnan too fell to Mujahid Amin for a duck. The ever reliable Junaid Shamsu hit a timely 14 and took the score to 84 before falling to Laxman Manjrekar. One run later Mohammad Rizwan Sabir too fell bowled by Laxman Manjrekar for 8. Muhammad Mudassar ran out Taimoor Ali for 8 and went on to dismiss Krishna Kumar for 2. Colatta Chocolates thus posted 99 for 9 in 10 overs.

Pacific Group started well with their openers scoring 25 runs in 3.5 overs before Jiju Janardhanan got bowled to Renjith Mani for 9. Fayyaz Ahmed got bowled by Intizzar Ali for a duck. Renjith Mani also clean bowled Abhay for 5. From 39 for 3 in 5.2 overs, opener Hamdan Tahir tried to hit his team out of trouble but the accurate Syam Ramesh had him clean bowled for 19. Syam Ramesh also clean bowled Laxman Manjrekar for 3. 

With half the side in the dug-out for 58, Adeel Malik got run out to Krishna Kumar for 15 four runs later Mayank Kumar fell to Zeeshan Butt for 4. In the end, Pacific Group could muster only 72 in 10 overs with Ansh Tandon and Muhammad Mudassar unbeaten on two runs each. Colatta Chocolates won the match by 27 runs. 

Brief scores:
Colatta Chocolates bt Pacific Group by 27 runs. Colatta Chocolates 99 for 9 in 10 overs (Renjith Mani 25, Hari Prasanth 28, Akif Raja 2 for 14, Muhammad Mudassar 2 for 19, Mujahid Amin 2 for 14) Pacific Group 72 for 7 in 10 overs (Hamdan Tahir 19, Adeel Malik 15, Renjith Mani 2 for 14, Syam Ramesh 2 for 9)
Player of the match: Renjith Mani