The team was back to practicing after a period of irregular cricketing activity. The match with Real Panthers was played on August 21st at Cypress Canyon Ground. Although we had arranged a team to 12, Manish, Aravind and Srinivas K dropped out or did not show up.
The game began close to 9am. We won the toss and were forced to bat due to just about half the players being around at the time of the toss.
The grass at Cypress Canyon was thick akin to the one at Miramar College Ground. The top half collapsed within the first 6 overs with Vijay S, Gopal, Naman, Umesh and Parag losing their wickets in different ways. It was clear that the batsmen were short on match practice and rusty. Half way into the inning we had reached 52/6 and an early closure seemed a high probability.
Hari R has been playing regularly and was the only one confident on our side. His demeanor was one of mixed caution and aggression. None of the bowlers troubled him while at the crease. A face savings inning (score unknown ?) studded with about 5-7 boundaries helped the team get to 110/10 in 20 overs. Hari remained unbeaten at the end of the inning with one hard chance being dropped down the leg side by keeper Anil N. Hari dispatched a few for boundaries in the region from long-leg to long on and one in the cover point region. Satish M provided good support to Hari in the second half of the inning. Helped by a healthy number of extras throughout the inning and the occasional boundary the score moved along despite the collapse at thre top.
In reply Real Panthers opened with Anil and Naveen. Our bowlers bowled tightly at the start of the inning. Helped by two dropped catches the openers put on a 52 run opening partnership before Naveen was held in the slips by Srinivas N. Anil N continued to bat with confidence despite the asking rate increasing in the second half. With 44 needed in 36 balls, Vilas M gave Hari the charge and hit three boundaries in over number 15. This changed the match equation in favor of Real Panthers. Until then a victory by our side looked probable discounting the very few wickets we had secured until then. At the end of over 19, Real Panthers had all but wiped out the target. With 5 wickets in hand and 2 runs to get in the final over the match was all but pocketed by Real Panthers. Gopal was able to make the match last for four additional balls but in the end we could not stop Real Panthers from winning the game.
Anil (47 in 59b, 2*4, 1*6), Naveen (21 in 22b, 3*4), Vilas (15 in 13b, 3*4) took the side to victory with 2 balls and 5 wickets to spare.
Real Panthers were without their complete side and most of us were rusty after a period of hiatus. Despite that it was a good fight considering the collapse at the top and the couple of dropped catches. The slim bowling attack did well to keep us in the game until the final over.
Great job Hari, the confidence while batting on this day was supreme. Amit ended up as the most economical bowler on our side with figures of 4-0-18-1.
Summary :-
FAC - 110/10 in 20 overs
Real Panthers - 111/5 in 19.4 overs
Let's better our performance in the next few games.
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