Centurion Kaushik rescues VPMS against mighty Rizvi

VPMS opener Kaushik Shukla at Cross Maidan yesterday. Pic/Akshay Jagtap

A gritty century by opener Kaushik Shukla (100 off 145 balls) helped VPMS Vidya Mandir (Dahisar) salvage a draw after being made to follow on against Rizvi Springfield (Bandra) in the Giles Shield two-day match at National Cricket Club, Cross Maidan yesterday.

Kaushik stitched a valuable 83-run stand with Shivam Ghosh to deny the Bandra outfit an outright win. When the umpires decided to end the day's proceedings, the Dahisar side were at 170-5 with Shivam unbeaten on 41 alongside Mohammed Zain (15 not out).

Rizvi, however, bagged two points due to their first innings lead. They had bundled out VPMS for just 118 in their first essay, during the morning session of the second day's play, before asking them to bat again. Skipper Mohit Tanwar was the wrecker-in-chief for Rizvi, claiming five wickets for 18 runs while Shivam top-scored with an unbeaten 54 for the Dahisar side.

With a huge task to accomplish, given his team were a massive 345 runs behind Rizvi's first innings total of 463, Kaushik started the innings positively, but soon began running out of partners. He finally found able support in first innings' half-centurion Shivam, who came in to bat at No. 6.

The pair frustrated the Rizvi bowlers for over an hour (65 minutes) before left-arm spinner Nishit Balla bowled Kaushik. But with just half an hour of play remaining, the batsman had done his job, smashing 20 fours during his 145-minute stay at the crease.

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