RBCC (a.k.a Sony) was the second team the Panthers were facing. Rupesh called correctly to win the toss again and given the moisture in the pitch not unexpectedly invited RBCC to bat. The boundaries were relatively close by and this promised to be a high scoring tussle.
Vijay S started the proceedings with a few wides. The pitch was an absolute nightmare for the bowler, batsman and the keeper. Some deliveries were bouncing way above the batsman's and keeper's head and few of them were keeping very low. Sai managed a boundary on the leg side to a delivery pitched a bit short towards the batsman's chest. The very next delivery or so Vijay S managed to tempt Sai to a slog over the long on to only see Hari take an excellent catch which bounced of his chest awkwardly. The score read 6/1 off the 1st over and Sai (4, 3 balls) was back in the hut. Abhi resumed the proceedings from the other end and struggled initially with his length but got into the grove very quickly. The RBCC score sheet ambled on to respectable 12/1 off 2 overs. Amit (4 runs, 17 balls) was scalped in Vijay S's second over. A good length swinging delivery lured him to have a swat resulting in a thick edge which flew over the point region. Aravind defied Newton's several laws of physics (in my mind the second law of momentum) and lunged forward to take a superb catch, probably the catch of the match. Rightly, he was mobbed by Panthers from all sides for his excellent gravity defying effort.
Vijay S struck back again in his third over to send Mohnish back in the tent by bowling a slower off cuter to disturb the stumps. RBCC were in a spot of bother with 16 runs on the board and 3 wickets down. Panthers were surely on top of their game with some great effort in the field. Pankaj and Venky started the building job for RBCC but found it difficult to cope with the pressure. Rupesh started as the first change and found it difficult to control the swing and gave away a few wides. After a few wides Rupesh tried going around the wicket and darted the ball on the stumps. This paid off quite well with Pankaj unable to resist the temptation and played an ugly shot to only find his middle and leg stump separated. Rupesh struck again when he got Venky to edge the ball to Rahul B who managed to take a low tumbling catch. Hari was quick to point out that Rahul B actually took the catch first and then tumbled to provide a more dramatic effect.
Hari was brought on and he struck with the very first ball to bowl Gavaskar for a duck. Hari repeated this feat again in his sceond over by bowling Nagendra out with his very first ball of the over. At the end of the 10 overs the scored read a healthy 42/7 as far as Panthers were concerned. RBCC resumed the proceedings cautiously and creeped towards 52 at the end of 17 overs. Rupesh bowled excellently to get rid off Bala who spooned a simple catch to Yogesh in the gully region. Yogesh bowled his Mohinder Amarnath's to restrict the RBCC tail pretty well and in the process got Nilesh out well caught by Shekhar in the short midwicket region. Abhi bowled the 17th over and conceded 10 runs. Yogesh bowled the penultimate over and that left Rupesh with a difficult option to bring on Aravind to bowl the last over. Bowling the last over is tough especially if its your first over of the match. Arvind conceded 13 runs and that meant a respectable target of 82 runs to be chased by Panthers on a wearing pitch.
Hari (4-0-9-2), Rupesh (4-1-12-3), Yogesh (3-0-8-1) and Abhi (4-0-14-0) were pick of the bowlers.
Panthers started out well with Shekhar and Abhi initiating the reply against Bala who generated excellent pace off the pitch. 4 runs were scored off the first 2 overs to settle some early nerves in the Panthers room. In the third over Abhi had to retire, courtesy Bala's in cutter which hit Abhi at a place which is very dear to all men. Hari walked in and started cautiously but eventually freeing up and smacking two boundaries to take Panthers to a respectable 24 off 6 overs. Shekhar then was bowled by Mohnish to a delivery which kept a bit low. Suresh, the hero from the last match, walked in and started belting the ball around which luckily didn't carry to any of the fielders.
Hari was timing the ball quite nicely but was caught in the deep holding out to Pankaj off Mohnish. Hari contributed quite well with 16 runs off 24 balls but as is the case with him he gets out when you think he will take the team to the finish line. The score read a healthy 45 runs off 10 0vers with Suresh back in the pavilion as well. Yogesh joined in after Suresh slashed Ram to be caught by Pankaj.
After the break there were a few arguments concerning wides. After the delay Bala produced a beauty which pitch on middle and off and just clipped the end of the bail on the off stump to send Vijay S packing. Abhi joined in Yogesh who sensibly just picked up singles and twos. The equation got a bit comfortable when a few wides went for boundary behind the stumps. Yogesh and Abhi each pulled a short one towards deep square leg to make the going easy for Panther's. Abhi was done in by an in swinging ripper from Pankaj to provide some hopes. But 16 runs of 7 overs was never going to be daunting task for Yogesh and Rupesh. Panthers finally won with almost 4 overs to spare.
Yogesh and Hari were the star performers with bat and ball and deserve to be MoM. Yogesh in particular scored 20 valuable runs to take Panther's towards safety but Hari's performance of 16 runs and giving away just 9 runs off 4 overs and picking two wickets is noteworthy as well.
Good job Panthers! 27 runs were given away in extras and if that's kept under control for the forthcoming matches then Panthers will more often than not win games against most opponents. Let's hope so.
Captain Rupesh Gupta, happy with his team (Guys, just chill out you know, just chill out)
MoM : Yogesh Vichare 20 *(25b, 2*4)
Maratha warrior swoops down from the Sahyadris to defend his fortress (much to the surprise of the purported Punjab Lion)
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