Rupesh started the proceeding on a good note with winning the toss and electing to field first. The pitch had a bit of a bounce but surprisingly less moisture. But the idea was to exploit the little bit of bounce there was to our advantage. Vijay S and Rosie started for Panther's and Nitin Tiwari and Ashish began for Blaster's. Vijay S started with a maiden over where the ball swung quite well and enough to keep the batsman honest. Nitin Tiwari has a tendency to play anything on the leg side toward the fine leg and deep midwicket region but all the deliveries landed on or outside off stump to deny him any chance. Rosie started off in a good fashion as well and in fact getting Nitin Tiwari in the slips caught by the ever reliable Abhishek who managed to juggle the ball once but held on to the catch anyway. In walked Harmandeep with scoreboard reading 1 wicket with 4 runs on the board. Harman started well with a well hit boundary on the offside to lift the score to 8 by the end of the second over. The third over by Vijay S saw a wicket in the over which was a maiden as well. At the end of 4th over the scored read 16/2. Rupesh started as first change and was right on money with his length. Rajesh (28 , 18b) although who walked in at the fall of second wicket was going hammer and tongs hitting a six and few boundaries before getting out to Abhsihek caught behind by Rahul B. The score at the end of the 9 th over read 49/3. Harman was eventually out scoring a well made 19 runs off 32 balls.
Between 10th and 16th over the Blasters were not able to push the peddle fast enough and crawled to 67 for loss of 5 wickets. Blaster's were eventually shot out for score of 90 which at one stage looked unlikely but thanks to Narasaih (who was borrowed by Blasters) 10 runs were scored off the last over bowled by Abhi.
Hari, Yogesh and Rupesh were able to take pace off the ball which made it difficult for Blaster's to score easy runs. Hari (4-0-14-1), Rupesh (4-0-15-2) and Vijay S (4-2-11-2) were pick of the bowlers with Abhi and Rosie providing able support.
Panthers started confidently negotiating the variable bounce with Shekhar and Abhi starting off well. The very accurate Ibrar gave away 5 runs in the first over. Nitin Tiwari started the second over but couldn't control the swing and gave away few wides. Harman started the fifth over and scalped Abhi went for a long hoike over the long on boundary but was caught well by Ibrar. Vijay S walked in and hit Harman for a boundary over the covers. The scored read 33 off 7 overs and Panther's were well on their way but Vijay S was bowled around his legs. This resulted in a slow period for Panthers which resulted in only 4 runs scored in 3 overs with Hari also back in pavilion caught in the slips off Venu by Ashish.
Suresh joined in with the task seemingly impossible. Suresh was joined by Yogesh once Shekhar was out again at slips by Ashish off Shailesh. This was fantastic catch taken just few inches from the ground. Shekhar played a good knock scoring 11 off 21 balls. Suresh and Yogesh picked singles when offered to keep the scoreboard moving. Suresh hit an excellent square cut to quell some nerves in the dressing room. Rajesh introduced himself in the 13th over but went for one to many including a more than a head high no ball which went for a four and a boundary. 13 runs were scored which handed over the momentum to panther's. The required run-rate dropped below five. Yogesh hit an excellent cover drive off Nitin Tiwari but got out the next ball. Suresh and Yogesh added some valuable runs between them. Rupesh entered the arena and scored a boundary off a "zadu" shot the very first ball. Worth noting is the fact that Rupesh was playing after quite a while and to produce such a strike is simply beyond any one's understanding.
Just when things were looking bright Rupesh got a ripper from Ibrar which knocked his stumps over and a victory seemed far out from reach. Suresh had other ideas though and he kept pegging along with others smartly by picking singles and occasional boundary. The equation at one stage was a bit tricky with 30 balls and 22 runs to win and 3 wickets in hand. Ravi gave good support to Suresh once Rosie departed attempting a single.
3 overs and 14 runs required was the target and Ibrar was to bowl. Ravi was out at short midwicket. Amazingly Suresh went after Ibrar hitting him for a boundary off the last ball to make the equation a seeming possibility (8 runs off two overs). Harman bowled the penultimate over with tension mounting on both sides. In the end Suresh spanked one to the cover boundary for a two, on the last ball of the over to achieve a memorable victory for Panthers with two wickets to spare and an over.
Suresh played a lone magnificent knock of 23 runs off 30 balls studded with two glorious boundaries. Not to mention the able support by "Extras" which added 27 runs to the final tally. Suresh in the past has shown glimpses of his wonderful hand-eye co-ordination but none was evident before as it was today when it mattered the most. It was a fantastic innings one which would be remembered for a while. Rightly he is the MoM for this match.
Good job Panthers!
MoM :- Suresh Tudor 23 *(30b, 2*4) - I can play Ibrar and Nitin all day long, no matter what the pitch or the target
Scorecard:http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcpoKNU4xEZquDg&hl=en
No comments:
Post a Comment