CSN win gives Pune playoff spot

Pune: Murtaza Trunkwala’s winning six for Team Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (CSN) against Solapur ensured that Pune made it the playoffs of the revived Maharashtra Premier League (MPL) in a late night match at Gahunje stadium on Friday.Pune were thus assured of the top-four finish but even a win in their last league game on Saturday against Ratnagiri won’t have lifted them to the top-two and play qualifier instead of the eliminator. Hence they could afford to rest captain Ruturaj Gaikwad and lost the rain-curtailed game via Duckworth-Lewis method.Nashik, Kolhpur, Pune and Ratnagiri have made it to the playoffs which start on Monday. The title clash is on Thursday.Brief scores: Solapur: 140-6 (Rushabh Rathod 55, Atharva Kale 23; Rajvardhan Hangargekar 1-23, Shamshuzama Kazi 1-23) lost to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: 141-3 in 18.5 (Murtaza Trunkwala 67*, Om Bhosale 34*; Prathamesh Gawade 2-34, Vicky Ostwal 1-17).Pune: 129-6 in 15 overs (Shubham Taiswal 36, Shripad Nimbalkar 30; Kunal Thorat 2-23) lost to Ratnagiri: 70-3 in 7.4 (Azim Kazi 21, Preetam Patil 20; Sachin Bhosale 2-17) by eight runs (DLS method).Trailing Nashik fall shortAarya Mone and Medhansh Shingote helped MCA Blue steal a draw and points for first-innings lead against Nashik in the U-16 MCA invitaton league two-day match at Chhtrapati Sabmbhajinagar. Batting at No 9, Mone helped Blue (236) overtake Nashik’s tally of 181. He slammed eight fours and three sixes in a 55-ball knock. Mone had earlier taken 3-26. Leading by 55 runs in the first innings, Blue’s Sairaj Joshi and Yashraj Madane took four wickets each in the second innings and bowled out Nashik for 156. However, needing 102 runs to win, Blue collapsed from 42-1 to 76-9. The fall of Mone, this time batting at No. 3, started the downfall. But Shingote played out what turned out to be the last over of the match (16th of the innings) of Neel Chandratre and denied outright win to Nashik. Kaustubh Revgade’s five-wicket haul and Nashik’s rearguard action thus went in vain. tnn