Herwadkar anchors ARCS chase to perfection

ARCS Andheri came back from the brink of defeat to beat Shivaji Park Lions in their T20 Mumbai league game here Friday.

Akhil Herwadkar was the star of the victory as he paced the chase to perfection with an unbeaten 79 (58b, 9x4, 3x6).

Chasing the Lions' total of 159 for six, Herwadkar and Sufiyan Shaikh raced to 67 before Shaikh departed.

However, the next seven overs saw the middle-order being pegged back by a spirited spin performance by the Lions.

Having lost three wickets for 33 runs, ARCS required 60 runs off the last seven overs.

But then ARCS managed to edge past the Lions.

Earlier, had it not been for Raunaq Sharma's (51* off 30b, 3x4, 4x6) assault in the death, the Lions wouldn't have been able to set the Andheri boys a target of 160 runs.

After coming in to bat with the team reeling at 86 for five in the 13th over, Sharma rallied the innings.

Sharma waited till the penultimate over to open up his arms and it fetched high rewards.

The last two overs saw the Lions plunder 42 runs, with Sharma hitting three sixes off in-form pacer Tushar Deshpande in the last over.

However in the end, it wasn't enough for the Lions.

Brief Scores: Shivaji Park Lions 159/6 in 20 overs (Raunaq Sharma 51*, Swapnil Pradhan 44; Iqbal Abdulla 2/16, Kevin Almeida 1/7) lost to ARCS Andheri 163/6 in 19.5 overs (Akhil Herwadkar 79*, Sufiyan Shaikh 25; Shivam Dube 2/41, Vijay Gohil 1/11).