Abhishek won the toss and elected to field considering the slowness of the outfield and the moisture on the pitch.
Siva dismissed Samir in the second over of the game and in the very next over Hari was bowled by Vinay. Eagles were in a sound position right at the start. Shekhar and Vijay S thereafter spent time to come to grips with the pitch and the good bowling of the Eagles. Vinay, Siva, Abhishek and Srinivas made scoring difficult. One even witnessed Rajesh latch on to a hard hit at square leg giving enough evidence of the fightback by the Eagles. Srinivas has a uncanny knack to get batsmen bowled without the keeper or batsmen knowing about it and that's just what happened to Shekhar. The ball squezeed on to the stumps between the legs resulting in a minor discussion of what exactly happened. Mudit picked up Vijay S in his very first over just when Vijay S began to take the attack to the opposition.
At the 10 over mark the Panthers had a meagre 29 runs on board with 4 key wickets being lost.
Ramesh and Suresh started some acceleration after the break. Mudit deceived Ramesh with his lack of pace and had him caught by Naman at long on. Suresh and Rahul B then focussed on picking up singles and twos to take Panthers closer to a much wanted target of 80 in 20 overs. Panthers crawled to 76/5 in 20 overs and might sure have been concerned at the half way stage. Suresh (19 in 31b) and Rahul B (12 in 21 b) did well to remain unbeaten at the end.
Mudit with figures of 4-0-17-2 played his coveted role of 5th bowler to a nicety. Siva with figures of 4-0-9-1 was the pick of the bowlers. Abhishek, Vinay and Srinivas did bowl well too.
Vijay S struck with a wicket on the fourth ball of the chase bringing joy to the Panthers. Parag joined Abhishek at the wicket. Abhishek went on the attack in the 3rd over being bowled by Vijay S that eased some nerves for the Eagles. Ramesh was introduced into the attack and picked up Abhishek (14 in 14b, 1*4) on the very first ball. Suresh held the easy catch at mid-off within the 30 yard circle. Panthers were convinced that one wicket at that stage would then result in a win for them in the game. Mudit joined Parag at the crease and together they stitched up a partnership. Parag hit a couple of fours to take a few more runs off the target. Mudit was run out in the 10th over but by then the Eagles were well placed at 43/2 with just 34 to get in 10 overs and 8 wickets in hand.
Eagles played with caution after the break. Siva struck Hari for a boundary to fine leg on a full toss. He also played some good looking strokes to cover and mid-wicket. Siva (13 in 22b, 1*4) was run out by Ramesh in the 16th over but just 10 runs were required for a win.
Parag (33 in 51b, 3*4) hit Spandan for a boundary to long on bringing the second win for the Eagles in this tournament.
The bowlers set the game up for the Eagles and thereafter it was just a matter of the Eagles occupying the crease.
Panthers should have key players returning soon and hence no opposition can take them lightly. Eagles now need to win the next two games to have any hope of even arithmetically making it to the semi-finals.
MoM : Parag Ahire (We know he bats well in internal games. RSG was missing but isn't our bowling the best one around? Other teams ask whether Panthers tanked this game, who knows ?)
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcpoDBO0cPSRTFA&hl=en
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