Medak Falcons vs Warangal Warriors: Tilak Verma’s stormy unbeaten century, Medak Falcons created history by crossing the ‘impossible’ target of 259 runs.

The last few days have been no less than a roller-coaster ride for the rising young star of Indian cricket, Tilak Verma. On Sunday (June 21), he captained the ‘India A’ team to a huge one-sided victory in the final against Sri Lanka A in Dambulla, Sri Lanka. Just the day after this historic title win, he returned to India without any rest and created a storm of runs in the domestic T20 league on Monday (June 22). Tilak Verma took over the captaincy of Medak Falcons in match number-3 of the TG20 tournament being organized by Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA). In this match played at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium (Uppal), Tilak scored a sensational unbeaten century while chasing the huge and seemingly impossible target of 259 runs and gave his team a historic victory with 2 balls to spare. Warangal Warriors had created havoc: Aman Rao’s record of 142 runs in 48 balls. Earlier, after losing the toss and coming to bat, the Warangal Warriors batsmen hit a tsunami of fours and sixes on the field. Warangal captain and opening batsman Aman Rao Perala displayed fearless strokeplay and played a brilliant inning of 142 runs in just 48 balls. In this innings he hit 12 fours and 13 skyscraper sixes. Aman had completed the first and fastest century of this tournament in just 32 balls. Thanks to the fierce form of this new player (Aman) of Rajasthan Royals (RR) in IPL, Warangal Warriors scored a mountain like score of 258/7 in the stipulated 20 overs. New record of Powerplay: The opening pair of Aman Rao and Harshit Chaudhary (35 runs) put 101 runs on the board in the first 6 overs (Powerplay) without losing any wicket, which is the biggest score of Powerplay in the history of this competition. There was a partnership of 133 runs between the two for the first wicket. Middle and death overs play: Murugan Abhishek’s explosive 32-run cameo after Aman’s dismissal helped Warangal take the score to 258. Medak Falcons bowlers N Surya Teja and Rahul Kunta tried to make a comeback by taking wickets in the middle, but by then it was too late. Falcons’ counterattack on difficult path, Tilak Verma’s half-century in 22 balls. Medak Falcons, chasing the Everest-like target of 259 runs, had a good but disappointing start. The wicket of Naman Agarwal (12 runs) fell in the first over. After this, Indian T20 team’s vice-captain Tilak Verma came to the crease and as soon as he came, he changed the entire gear of the match. Tilak counter-attacked the Warangal bowlers and completed his half-century in just 22 balls. Falcons had scored 85/2 by the end of the powerplay, however, Shrunjith Reddy (25 runs) was unfortunately run out. Drama of 15th over: When Medak Falcons were in trouble, this run-chase which once looked very easy suddenly took an exciting turn in the 15th over. Warangal Warriors bowlers made a brilliant comeback and took three consecutive wickets of Falcons, due to which Medak’s score suddenly became 190/6 from 190/3. Now 65 runs were required to win in the last 5 overs (30 balls), and with the tail batsmen this target seemed impossible to achieve. Century and ‘Nayak’ together in 42 balls; Thrilling victory with two balls remaining. When everyone had given up hope, a masterclass from captain Tilak Verma was witnessed. He displayed excellent wrist-work and timing around the field to complete his brilliant century in just 42 balls. Vikram Nayak, the new batsman who came to the crease, supported Tilak very well. Vikram turned the match completely towards Medak by playing a cameo inning of 27 runs in just 12 balls. There was a match-winning partnership of 58 runs between the two for the 7th wicket. Although Vikram was out in the penultimate over, by then the match was in the Falcons’ hands. In the excitement of the last over, Tilak Verma maintained his composure, took boundaries wisely and played an incredible inning of 136 not out (14 fours, 8 sixes) in 56 balls, giving his team a miraculous victory by 3 wickets. This innings of Tilak will always be remembered among the greatest innings in the history of this T20 league.