The CouchExpert Staff
5th May, 2013
Match: MCC versus ODW
Venue: CECG, Bangalore
Teams:
MCC
ODW
ODW came into the game in the hope to stem the slide post their brilliant first game. The batting has been dodgy and captain Swayam pushed himself to open the innings in an attempt to stabilize the top-order only to be dismissed cheaply. Melvin’s tournament also seemed to be nose-diving after the first two games as he was dismissed cheaply too.
Guna and Vijay kept the scoring in check with brilliant bowling that was ably supported by Venu. Arvind and Jyoti stemmed the rot playing carefully after the loss of initial wickets. Jyoti seemed to struggle for any fluency initially and a knock to the head seemed to shake him out of bad form as he started to find his range as he looked to cut loose. Just when ODW seemed to have set a base for their lower order to launch an assault the wheels came off and the innings went on a limbo to finish with 125/7 off their 20 0vers.
Prasad’s unbeaten 44 set up an easy 7 wicket win for MCC
With run rate being a factor, Bhargav and Guna seemed to be keen to get a move on early with Guna particularly being in a hurry. He was slightly unlucky as a powerful drive from him found Swayam in the way who took a tremendous catch. Sambit and Vinod put the lid on the scoring as MCC’s chase lost momentum and at 37 for 1 after 8 overs, the game was in balance.
Bhargav and soon Prasad put paid to any hopes of a revival for ODW with a quick 20 runs in the next 2 overs as Jyoti and Swayam failed to back up the good work done by the new ball overs. With Bhargav gone, Shankar joined Prasad and the two seemed to be in tremendous nick as they chipped away at the target with relentless regularity.
For the first time all week Prasad seemed to be the only one to have got the hang of the wicket as he found runs by waiting on the ball and finding runs square of the wickets with ease. His 44 and unbeaten 4th wicket partnership with Shankar brought up a comfortable victory for MCC in the 18th over.
“The bowlers set up the perfect platform for our batsmen. Arun, Vijay and Venu have been brilliant with the ball for us. Bhargav, Prasad and Shankar were great with the bat for us. Very happy with the win,” said Guna at the end of the game. Swayam on the other hand rued missing out on another decent start in putting up a decent total.
Brief Scores
ODW 124/7 in 2o overs (Arvind 34, Jyoti 26, Arun 3/17) lost to MCC 126/3 in 17.5 overs (Prasad 44 not out, Shankar 32 not out) by 7 wickets
Post match ceremony
Performer of the Match: Prasad.
Match Result: MCC defeated ODW by 7 wickets
Points: MCC(2) ODW (0)
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