India Cements won their match rather easily. Their weak bowling still proved too much for the BSNL batting, which fell 25 runs short in a rain-affected match. This was one more match where the gap in quality (India Cements had Badrinath, Dravid, Balaji and Tyagi, while BSNL's best was Arindam Das and Mohapatra) showed in the match result.
The match that should have got TV/Web coverage was between the star-studded ONGC and Madras Rubber Factory. Pinch-hitter Praveen Kumar set the pace with a rapid 27, while Gagan Khoda (remember him?) scored 105, with Gautam Gambhir (at three) and Virat Kohli scoring 50s each. Towards the end, Ajay Ratra scored 23 quick runs as ONGC smashed the weak MRF bowling for 329 for nine, with a valuable tail end contribution from Ishant Sharma. Interestingly, MRF's top bowler was PK Dharma, whose match figures read 8-0-75-5. The total was too much for MRF to chase, as they fell behind by 71 runs. The powerful bowling lineup had Munaf (three), Sarandeep (two), Mishra (two) and Ishant (two) sharing the wickets, but Praveen Kumar went for a few and didn't last the full ten overs- but the part-timers were even worse. This seemed a decent match, more interesting than the India Cements one.
In the match played at Mohali, Bhuvanesh Kumar took a wicket and scored six, but there was nothing else to look forward to, where India Revenue defeated ITC by six runs. The fourth match at Dharmashala was, not surprisingly, rained out. Indian Oil, with some domestic stars of today, yesterday and some IPL extras, will have to wait to make their debut in the tournament.