Nitish Rana, Arnav Bugga lead LB Shastri to victory

For young Arnav Bugga, the ongoing 50th Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial Cricket Tournament is turning out to be baptism by fire.

The 17-year-old has been given the charge of leading LB Shastri Cricket Club in the tournament and he is coming out with flying colours. On Saturday, he led his team with a fine half-century (56 off 36 balls; 7x4s, 2x6s) to an eight-wicket win over Tilak Nagar Colts at the St Stephen's College GRound in Delhi and register a place in the quarterfinals.

That he had the seasoned Nitish Rana by his side on a testing pitch helped. Rana, who has returned from Indian Premier League, made 84 not out off 35 balls (4x4s, 9x6s) as he clobbered the clueless Tilak Nagar Colts, who scored 158/9 in 20 overs. Their total was based on 70 off 41 balls (6x4s, 5x6s) by Aryan Kapoor.

Tilak Nagar batted first. The bowling was tight throughout. Rana emerged as the most successful bowler with 2/37.

The target of 160 in 20 overs was not expected to test the strong LB Shastri side but on a tacky surface, it was not going to be easy. For the second match running, Priyansh Arya failed. Arya was part of the Punjab Kings side that ended as runners-up at IPL 2025 and scored 475 runs to enter record books for most runs by an uncapped player in the history of IPL.

Arya played on to his stumps in the first match on Thursday and on Saturday, after a lucky boundary -- his drive caught top edge and went between short third man and slip -- he holed out to long off to fall for a score in single digit.

Arya has found it tough to bat here after having milked runs on IPL's flat surfaces and against the flying Kookaburra white ball.

"The pitch was a bit damp early. We wanted to bowl. We had won the toss too. We restricted them. Our strategy was to ensure that we play normally and not go after the bowling. It turned out to be one-sided in the end as we scored with confidence," said Bugga.

"Bowling first will be our strategy."

Nitish Rana was the Player of the Match while Aryan Kapoor was adjudged Fighter of the Match.

In the second match of the day, Yorks Cricket Club thrashed Mount Cricket Club by seven wickets. After restricting Mount to 118 in 19.4 overs -- built on Arjun's 50 off 42 balls -- Yorks chased the target, reaching 119/3 in 12.3 overs. Yash Bazad took 3/9 for Yorks and his spell played a key role in restricting Mount.

Tags : Nitish Rana, Priyansh Arya, Arnav Bugga, Delhi, cricket