Badoni, Tiwari take Sonnet to DDCA Hot Weather semis

Delhi first-class team batsman Ayush Badoni hit 70 off 65 balls on a testing Modern School grounds pitch, and added 72 runs for the sixth wicket with Naman Tiwari (60 off 56 balls) to help Sonnet Cricket Club defeat Young Friends by 110 runs in a Delhi and District Cricket Association (DDCA) Hot Weather quarter-final match on Thursday.

Put into bat, Delhi team all-rounder Hrithik Shokeen and Uttar Pradesh batsman Samarth Singh added 36 for the first wicket before a flurry of wickets saw Sonnet lose track and be precariously placed at 71 for five wickets.

Badoni, batting at No. 4, then stepped up to the plate, as he tamed the pitch on which the ball was gripping.

“The pitch wicket was difficult to bat on today. So, we had to play according to situation. I adjusted according to it. I guided my teammates too. Tiwari was batting well, played some good shots as he supported me,” said Badoni after the match.

“The ball was turning, so I applied the sweep and cut shots,” added Badoni.

Tiwari admitted he had to struggle at the start and take time to get into the groove.

“We lost a few wickets early because the track had moisture and the ball was turning. Pitch was not easy to bat on. I struggled a bit at the start, I took time on the pitch. Played to the merit of the ball, before opening up. We had targeted 220 but thankfully got more,” added the 20-year-old batsman.

Tiwari took the team beyond 200 even after Badoni had been dismissed when the team was yet to reach 150.

That total proved more than enough. Sonnet began their bowling with their left-arm spinners, Lokesh Nagar and Manan Bhardwaj, who bowled within the wickets but further down and induced false shots. Both removed an opener each before pace bowler Anirudh Chaudhary, who tore his shoes while bowling, took three wickets for 31 runs in four overs to break the back of Young Friends’ batting.

In another quarter-final, Food Corporation of India (FCI), riding on No. 3 batsman Umang Sharma’s 66-ball unbeaten 114 and opener Nitin Saini’s 79, defeated Rajnigandha by six wickets in a game reduced to 32 overs. Rajnigandha made 276/6 on Kandvil Shetty’s 80 off 39 balls and FCI chased the target in 29 overs losing four wickets.

In the third quarter-final of the day, Delhi Colts defeated Pelicans Club via spin of the coin after the two teams scored the same number of runs.

Batting first, Delhi Colts made 227/9 in the games reduced to 30 overs due to wet conditions. Opener Sagar Khatri scored 120 off 83 balls. In response, Pelicans made 227/8 with Jatin Kadyan (71) and Parav Singla (53) scoring half-centuries.