Kapil Dev helps Twenty 4 Venture Lions book quarter-final slot at Lloyd DGC League

 Kapil Dev in action. 

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi:The legendary Kapil Dev partnering Jagdish Sharma, staged a brilliant fight-back with a score of one-under 35 in the back-nine, to help his team Twenty 4 Venture Lions, beat Bajaj Foundation and book a quarter-final berth on day-12 of the Fourth Edition of the ‘Lloyd Delhi Golf Club League powered by Radico’.

Kapil Dev was 5 down after 8 holes with a score of 9-over at the half-way stage.  The fact that he came back fighting with a score of one-under in the back-nine, to help his team level scores against Bajaj Foundation is testament to the temperament of one of India’s greatest sportsmen.

Twenty 4 Venture Lions started their quest with a win in the opening game against Bajaj Foundation with Rajendra Prasad and Madhu Misra of Twenty 4 Venture Lions beating Vikas Dhull and Sunil Budhiraja of Bajaj Foundation.  The next game witnessed Kapil Dev contribute like only he can, to salvage a tie.  Twenty 4 Venture Lions went on to win the next three games and. It was only in the last game of the match that Bajaj Foundation managed to win courtesy Sonny Iqbal and Arvind Sethi outplaying Situ Puri and Pavit Singh Sistani of Twenty 4 Venture Lions. Twenty 4 Venture Lions won 4-1 and bagged 3 crucial points.

The opening match of the day between Ardee Masters and Baale Golf ended in a tie. Baale asserted themselves early on, with Gurshant Singh and Prashant Kaul beating the duo of Gopal Kapoor and Puneet Kashyap of Ardee Masters to go one up. This was followed by another win for Baale Golf in the next game where the father-son duo of Chetan and Aditya Singh beating Giriraj Meena and Rishi Nanda of Ardee.   Ardee came back with a win in the third game but Baale went on to win the fourth  and looked favourites to win the match.  Ardee Masters however, had other ideas and went on to win the final two games to level scores.  The last game was won by the Ardee Owner Jaideep Sangwan and Raghav Puri in what seemed like poetic justice. The teams tied at a score-line of 3-3.

The second match of the day was a one-sided affair with TeeM EDC decimating Shiva 5-1.  Shiva started in excellent fashion with a win in the opening game with Lt. Gen. IS Singh and Vibhakar Shastri  of Shiva beating the team of Commodore Amit Bhandari and Mohan Soi. TeeM EDC however pulled themselves together to win the next five games. TeeM EDC pocketed 3 points for their win.

In the final game of the day between Deutsche Motoren and Swing K Kings, Deutsche Motoren won 3-2 on the final hole of the day.  The teams were tied going into the final hole.

The League is being played on a four-ball better ball Matchplay Format and over two stages – a Round Robin stage followed by a Knock-out stage. During each playoff match between two teams in the Round Robin stage, each team will field 6 pairs (12 players). One pair from each team will play against a pair from the other team in the above-mentioned format, with all the players playing off 90% of their original handicaps. The teams will get points for their wins. The 24 teams have been divided into 4 groups. After the Round Robin stage, during which the teams from one group will compete against each other. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Knock-out stage starting with the Quarter-finals. In the Knock-out Stage the matches between two teams will be contested by seven  pairs (14 players). The Finals, as mentioned earlier, will be played on 26^th October, 2024.