The CouchExpert Staff
28th April, 2013
Match: CECC vs Wells Fargo
Venue: CECG, Bangalore
Toss: Wells Fargo won the toss and elected to bat.
CECC were coming off a loss against Cognizant a fortnight ago and were taking on Wells Fargo who had suffered a close defeat at the hands of GE at CECG the previous week. Both teams were smarting after their defeats and looked determined to win as Wells Fargo won the toss and elected to bat.
Battling a fever, Wells Fargo’s captain Srinivas set about his business of scoring runs quicky as Goutham struggled to find line or length in his first over and was taken for 13. Anand, opening the innings today with Srinivas, seemed to be in fine touch as well finding the cover boundary in the first over.
Harsha smashed his way to a 29-ball 47
Gaurav, opening the bowling for CECC at the other end kept it tight with his nagging accuracy and clever changes in spin and pace. Goutham followed-up with a tight over of his own that resulted in Anand losing his cool and eventually his wicket in the next over as he tried to hit Goutham over the top and was caught at covers by Gautam R. Gaurav pinned Srinivas in front of the stumps only for Srinivas to survive a very tight LBW shout in the very next over.
CECC had tightened the noose and Wells Fargo began to feel the pinch and Srinivas tried to break the shackles and managed to hit Goutham for a six over deep-square leg. CECC’s planning of setting a tight off-side field making the batsmen hit across the line payed dividends the next ball as Srinivas mistimed his swipe across the line and was caught by Gaurav at mid-on.
The innings lost plot as Suman and Shiv soon followed the captain to the pavilion as Shoukath opened his wickets account for the day. Jubin and Adarsh provided some stability as Wells Fargo moved closer to a decent total of 120 only to be bowled out in the 19th over for 112. For CECC, Goutham, Gautam R, Gaurav and Shoukath picked up 2 wickets each while Dinesh picked up one. Harsha accounting for the other scalp with a run-out.
Goutham on reaching his 50.
Chasing a modest 113 for victory, CECC opened with a new pairing of Harsha and Goutham. The pair soon went about making a mockery of the chase as they got stuck in to Wells Fargo bowling. Goutham took 19 off the first over bowled by captain Srinivas. Harsha responded by taking Sherin for 12 runs in the next and Goutham smashed Vinod for 20 runs in the 3rd over. The score read 51/0 after 3 overs and Srinivas had already tried pace and spin to no avail.
The pair of Harsha and Goutham made merry as they continued to plunder runs at a tremendous pace. 15 runs came in the 4th over and 16 in the 5th as Goutham reached his 50 off the last ball of the 5th over. His 50 coming in 16 balls (10X4, 1X3, 3X2, 1X1, 0X1). Harsha was equally punishing at the other end preferring the more artistic variant to dismantle the Wells Fargo bowlers with languid drives and elegant back cuts.
Goutham fell with the score on 97 as Shiv trapped him in front. Harsha fell with only 3 left to win for a whirlwind 47 (29b, 8X4). Kaustubh brought up the win with a boundary soon after as CECC won with 9.4 overs to spare.
Brief Scores:
Wells Fargo 112 all out in 19 overs (Jubin 23, Adithya 16, Gaurav 2/14, Gautam R 2/14, Shoukath 2/20, Goutham 2/22, Dinesh 1/14) lost to CECC 114/2 in 10.2 overs (Goutham 56 (29b, 11X4), Harsha 47 (29b, 8X4)) by 8 wickets
Post match discussion
Match Result: CECC beat Wells Fargo by 8 wickets
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