Sam won the toss and elected to bat on a windy day with overcast skies. It was an afternoon game at Spring Canyon Ground (Big).
Rupesh and Naman opened for the Eagles and Rosie and Mudit shared the new ball. The first couple of overs were relatively quiet. Rupesh launched one to square leg where the fielder Venkat let one go off his hands for a boundary. Rupesh launched two boundaries on the last two balls of Mudit's next over. The first was a hit straight over the bowlers's head and the next one was hit towards square leg region. The first 6 overs produced 28 runs for no wickets.
Samir and Ajay kept the two batsmen relatively quiet. By then the Panthers had let down about 4 catches in the outfield with the beneficiary being Rupesh on all ocassions. In the 8th over Rupesh edged down the leg side to give Ajay his first wicket. To his credit, Rupesh walked back by himself having scored 23 (33b, 4*4). Naman had been picking singles all along with straight drives on both sides of the wicket coupled with drives square of the wicket on the off side and hits square of the wicket on the leg side. Hari and Naman took the Eagles to the break with 49 on board and no further loss of wickets.
Aravind picked up the wickets of Hari and Naman in the 12th over. Hari was brilliantly caught at short mid-wicket (straightish one) by Samir stretching his left hand out and latching on to the ball. Naman lofted one towards leg and was held by Mudit above his chest. Naman played a solid inning of 30 (36b, 1*4) and definitely made an impression.
Satheesh and Parag scored a few runs until the 16 th over taking the score to 86/4. Yogesh picked up Parag on the 5th ball of his first over. Rosie held Parag on the long off fence just a few yards within the boundary. Panthers had dropped a couple of hard chances after the first four drops but thereafter held the catches that came their way.
Satheesh was run out in a mix up with Sam. Ajay picked up three wickets in the final over as batsmen lofted him in the outfield where fielders made no mistake. Eagles reached a healthy score of 118/8 in 20 overs.
Samir and Rosie were the most economical bowlers for the Panthers and Ajay came up with a four wicket haul.
Panthers began the chase with Santosh and Yogesh opening the batting. Satheesh bowled an erratic first over conceeding 11 runs with the ball landing short and posing no problems for both the openers. Hari bowling the second over was smashed for a boundary by Santosh. Karthik was hit towards square leg for a boundary by Santosh. Karthik however came back to knock the stumps of Santosh as he tried to play across to a fullish ball. Samir replaced Yogesh and there began a phase where both batsmen placed the ball well and ran quick singles at times even when the ball was headed towards the fielder. Loose balls were placed for a two or three with an ocassional boundary also coming along. Panthers had 39 on board in 6 overs with the loss of just one wicket. Sam, Rupesh and Shekhar then bowled three quiet overs yielding just 11 runs with Rupesh bowling a maiden in the 9th over. Panthers went in to the break with a score of 50/1 with Samir and Yogesh well set.
Yogesh was stumped by Rahul on a wide down leg side to give Parag a surprise wicket in the 15th over. Panthers were well in control of the chase by then with Eagles having used up most of their bowling options. The 17th over from Parag yielded 11 runs and Panthers seemed to be cruising towards victory. Satheesh bowled Mudit on the last ball of the 18th over but by then just 4 runs were required for victory. Shekhar did well to conceede just 3 runs in the 19th over to take the game to the 20th over. A wide from Giri brought a 7 wicket victory for the Panthers with an over to spare. Samir played a fantastic knock of 44 * (50b, 4*4). Yogesh played an equally stabilising role to come up with a score of 32 (44b). The patnership between Yogesh and Samir placed the Panthers on the path to victory and also forced the Eagles to utilise all their main bowlers in the search of wickets and hope of restricting the scoring. Sam, Rupesh and Shekar conceeded just 33 runs between them in the 8 overs they bowled.
The 5 match series is balanced at 1-1 with the next two games being extremely critical. Both sides seem to be equal in strength based on performances so far. The side that wins the next one might very well go on to win the series. Eagles went into the game without the essential seven bowlers and paid for it with a few regular bowlers not being up to the mark and part timers not being able to restrict the scoring.
It was an overall a good show on all fronts { cricketing and otherwise :-) } by both sides !
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcppl4hU7xUC3Nw&hl=en
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