Veteran India opener Shikhar Dhawan made a strong statement in the ongoing DY Patil T20 Cup. Dhawan recently lost his BCCI central contract but did well for his side DY Patil Blue in Talegaon, Pune.

The opener, who had not played competitive cricket since IPL 2023, hit 2 sixes and 5 boundaries for his 28-ball 39. Unfortunately, his valuable knock went in vain as his side DY Patil Blue lost by just one run to Tata Sports Club in the 18th edition of the T20 tournament.

Tata Sports Club batted first and posted 185 for nine in their 20 overs. In the chase, Abhijit Tomar and Shikhar Dhawan (39) added 64 runs in 7.1 overs. Nutan Goel remained unbeaten on 38 off 35 balls and he added a valuable 58 runs for the fifth wicket with Shubham Dubey (42). But the DY Patil Blue finished on 184 and fell by one run short.

While Dhawan starred with the bat, his teammate Dinesh Karthik was dismissed for a first-ball duck but, with the gloves, took the important catch of Samarth Vyas.

BRIEF SCORES:

Tata Sports Club 185-9 in 20 overs (Apoorva Wankhede 83 n.o., Chinmay Sutar 51; Vipul Krishnan 4-42, Ajay Singh 2-32) defeated DY Patil Blue 184-7 in 20 overs (Shubham Dubey 42, Shikhar Dhawan 39, Nutan Goel 38 n.o., Abhijit Tomar 30; Vivek Shelar 2-28, Aditya Dhumal 2-45)-by one run.

(India Today inputs)