Skipper Keni guides India to comfortable 35-run win over England physical disability team
Jan 30, 2024
Ahmedabad (Gujarat) [India], January 30 : Leading by example, Indian physical disability team skipper Vikrant Keni played a significant role with both bat and ball in the hosts' second successive win over the visiting England side in a T20 match held in Ahmedabad on Tuesday.
After the win on Tuesday, the Keni-led Indian side made 2-0 in the five-match bilateral series.
Openers Jaffar Bhat and Wasim Iqbal gave India a good start with a partnership of 36 runs in the first five overs. Iqbal contributed 22 runs with the help of one four and two sixes in 16 balls before going to the pavilion.
Other opener Bhatt had a 78-run partnership with skipper Keni before being bowled out by English bowler Callum Flynn. He scored a brilliant half-century with the help of five boundaries and two sixes. He scored 51 runs in 39 balls.
The second half-century for the home team came through Keni, who scored 52 runs in 42 balls.
Yogendra Bhadoria (12), Ravindra Sante (13) and Majid (10) were the other contributors to India's mammoth total of 177 runs with a loss of seven wickets in the stipulated 20 overs.
For the visiting side, Callum Flynn and Anthony Clapham took two wickets each, while Liam O Brien and Ben Sutton scalped a wicket. India's Sunny got run out by Jordon Williams and Liam Thomas.
Though England's batting line was better than their first match, they couldn't match India's high run rate of 8.85 per overs.
The visiting side scored 142 runs for the loss of nine wickets in 20 overs.
India's opening bowlers Aamir Hassan and Radhika Prasad were on target in their starting overs, sending both the openers to the pavilion in the first 18 balls. Callum Flynn and Liam O Brien stabilised England's innings by adding 53 runs for the third wicket partnership. Brien was lbw by Pawan Kumar for 17 runs.
Brendon Parr played a stunning knock of 32 runs (not out) in 20 balls. William Flynn scored 15 runs for 14 balls.
For India, Ravindra Sante and Pawan Kumar took two wickets each, while Hassan, Prasad, Keni and Sunny had a wicket each in their kitty.
Skipper Keni, who scored 52 runs and scalped a wicket and got a run out, was adjudged man of the match.
The series is organised by the Differently-Abled Cricket Council of India (DCCI) supported by BCCI and the cricket board's affiliate unit, Gujarat Cricket Association.
