Pentasoft make short work of Combined Districts XI

A low scoring affair between Pentasoft and Combined Districts XI saw the Chennai software company notch up an easy victory in the Moin ud Dowlah Cup at Hyderabad. Combined Districts' skipper Vishnuvardhan won the toss and decided to have a bat. Although he won the toss there was little joy for Vishnuvardhan. His openers got off to a dreadful start, with Venu losing his wicket to Tamil Nadu all rounder Sadagopan Mahesh in just the 4th over of the day.

One drop batsman Mohamood Ali got to 5 before he was cleaned up by Pavan Kumar. Another Kumar, this time Sathish, got rid of opener Naveen Reddy and Combined Districts XI were in a spot of bother at 30/3. The spot of bother got progressively worse as 30/3 became 39/5. Wickets were shared around as Combined Districts slumped to 110 all out.

Chasing 111 from 50 overs was never going to pose any problem for a batting line up that boasted the likes of Sadagopan Ramesh, Shiv Sunder Das and Hrishikesh Kanitkar. With just one wicket down, Pentasoft cruised to a nine wicket victory. Ramesh (67) and Das (25) were unbeaten at the crease as the target was overhauled with 29 overs to spare. Ramesh's knock of 67 came off just 71 balls and included 10 sweetly timed hits to the fence.

Not one to be left behind, Das helped himself to an easy 25 (33b, 2x4). Pentasoft have a number of stars in their side, and are bound to be stretched further by opposition stronger than Combined Districts XI.