Jaffer duo propel IOC

The marquee match of the day between Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum in Group A lived up to expectations on the third and final day of the league stage of the 35th PSPB inter-unit cricket tournament hosted by EIL on Tuesday.

Team IOCL, who won the toss, asked BPCL to bat. On a slow pitch, scoring was difficult in the initial overs, despite which Bharat Petroleum managed to post 133/5 in 20 overs, with Shreyas Iyer leading the way with 55 runs off 38 balls.

A measured response from Indian Oil, with the unclenephew duo of Wasim Jaffer (36, 28b) and young Armaan Jaffer (53, 42b) then saw IOCL home in 17.3 overs.

In another game, Team OIL ran up an impressive 194/1 in their 20 overs and then bowled out hosts EIL for 82. Sunil Ranjan (73, 65b) and Abu Nichem (72, 41b) had the measure of the EIL bowling, scoring at will.

Defending champions ONGC faced few problems from HPCL, for whom Adeeb Usmani (51, 41b) played a lone hand in setting a target of 76. ONGC chased down the target losing only a wicket within 9.3 overs, with Sandeep Sharma (47, 33b) leading the charge once again.

In the final match of the day, team MRPL beat team NRL comfortably, the winners knocking off the 141 runs required within 13 overs.

The four winners all went through to the semi-finals.