There was plenty of joy for members of the Oil and Natural GasCommission XI in the second day of their match against All IndiaAssociated Banks XI in the Buchi Babu Invitation Tournament 2000

Anand Vasu25-Aug-2000There was plenty of joy for members of the Oil and Natural GasCommission XI in the second day of their match against All IndiaAssociated Banks XI in the Buchi Babu Invitation Tournament 2000.Driven forward by a classy knock of 157 from skipper Gautham Vadhera,ONGC notched up a mammoth 484/5 declared.Supporting his skipper well, Rizwan Shamshad slammed 114 in a strokefilled display of aggressive batsmanship. Shamshad was particularlysevere on the spinners. His knock however, was made more valuable byVadhera’s patient knock.Although the new ball was taken first thing in the morning, themediumpacers delivered just 4 overs before the ball was handed back tothe spinners.In what must be an unusual situation, All India Associated Banks XIemployed their third stumper of the match in the form of CP Sahu.Mithun Minhas gave Sahu the pleasure of being on the scoreboard as hewas stumped off Panchasara.Shortly before drinks, Vadhera decided that he had enough runs on theboard and called it quits at 484/5. Responding to this huge score, AllIndia Associated Banks were in trouble immediately. Delhi mediumpacerAmit Bhandari struck twin blows, removing the openers Sahu and DanielManohar with just 37 on the board. Devendra Bundela saved All IndiaAssociated Banks from further embarrassment as he shored up one end.Making 103 including 16 boundaries, pushed the score forward. PankajDharmani played a speedy knock, bringing up his half century with 10boundaries to his name. After slamming a majestic six over mid wicketoff spinner Rahul Sanghvi, he succumbed for 64.At the fall of Dharmani’s wicket, the scoring rate dropped once more.Shortly after making his hundred, Bundela fell, with the score on 214.Karnataka stumper Tilak Naidu (26) and KN Ramesh 4) saw All IndiaAssociated Banks safely through to stumps at 223/4.