BPL Sports Club take second day's honours

BPL Sports Club took the honours over the young National Cricket Academy (NCA) side at the end of the second day's play in the opening match of the Coromandel Cement Cup tournament in Bangalore on Sunday. BPL Sports Club secured a useful first innings lead of 55 before further extending the advantage to 116 as they finished with 61/1 off 13 overs in their second essay.

Beginning the second day on 12 for no loss with highly spoken about openers Gautam Gambhir and Vinayak Mane at the crease, the NCA side added a further 28 runs before Mane fell to C Raghu with the score on 40. Mane made just 10. Gambhir went on to make 65, adding 66 for the second wicket with GI Singh. The aggressive Delhi southpaw struck nine boundaries.

The fall of Gambhir's wicket ushered in the beginning of a slow end to the NCA challenge. GI Singh (36) and Ishan Ganda (25) were the only players to make noteworthy contributions as the NCA side lost wickets at regular intervals to be all out for 204. For BPL Sports Club, left arm spinner Anand Katti was the pick of the bowlers, returning figures of 4/35 off his 23 overs.

The fact that the second innings is restricted to 40 overs a side makes the lead of 116 a rather healthy one. At the crease for BPL Sports Club were Adithya Mishra (27) and Yerre Goud (10).