The CouchExpert

Finals#5: EMC (A5) versus Wowzers (B5)

27^th August 2013 (7:30 am – 10:30 am)

EMC won the toss and elected to bowl

The finals weekend was finally upon us and the first of the finals turned out to be a cracker with a super over finish. For EMC, who dominated 90% of the game, it would be a tough defeat for EMC to digest.

Put into bat, EMC got off to a disastrous start with the ball with Sriram bowling 12 wides in the first over as Wowzers. Suresh and Muzaffer tried to make the most of wayward bowling by Jagadish and Sriram.

Muzaffer was the first to go in the 4th over as Jagadish found his stride and started to cause trouble to batsmen on a consistent basis by now. Suresh, who has looked good in bursts throughout the tournament perished without converting his start into a substantial score.

Soon, Wowzers were in familiar territory with captain Ravi and Karthik looking to steer the ship. A very profligate EMC bowlers had gifted them with the cushion of extras nineteen to the dozen for them to take it easy with the runrate as the the pair ticked over the middle overs as they neared a hundred just over 12 overs.

The introduction of Srikanth turned the match completely upside down as he accounted for both Karthik as he castled them with his freewheeling action with three full rotations of his bowling arm before his delivery stride. Sriram trapped Ravi at the other end. Srikanth picked up his third wicket in his next over to derail the Wowzers’s innings completely.

Wowzers had to huff and puff to see if they could eke out a total that they could defend. Jagadish came back to stifle the lower order and with Harish picking up the last two wickets in the 19th over, EMC had bowled out Wowzers for just 125, 35 of them their own contribution with extras.

Chasing 126, EMC lost Harish in the first over, but Krishna and Jeethendra took over and dominated the innings for the next 12 overs. The pair were outstanding in putting the loose deliveries away for boundaries. Krishna seemed to be in a hurry with his powerful strokeplay and he received a good and aggressive showing of his own.

With less than 30 needed in about 7 overs, Krishna got out to Karthik. And Karhik knocked out Kushal with the next ball to set off a sequence of 20 minutes of cricket that was surreal.

A comfortably chase turned to a struggle as Srikanth found air more often than leather ball after ball. What started off a routine for 2 overs turned to a tactic after that as Wowzers successfully kept Jeethendra away from the strike and refused to run Srikanth out or catch him when he skied a catch.

11 runs resulted in the next 4 overs as a result and the pressure told on Jeethedra as he got out. And in a remarkable turn of fortune, Srikanth’s swingings found the bat as he edged a couple of boundaries to bring the required runs to single digits. Now, Wowzers were keen to get him out at first chance!

Eventually Srikanth was run out with 8 needed off the last 11 deliveries. A huge scramble ensued in the end with byes attempted to the wicket keeper and the like. With 2 needed off the last ball a single is all that was possible as the finals ended in a tie and the game going into a super over to decide the winner.

The super over turned out to be a complete disaster for EMC who had completely lost their way in the last half hour. The confidence seemed low and it was no wonder when they lost both wickets for 2 runs to set Wowzers to chase only 3 in their over which they did in three balls to bring wild celebrations.

Brief scores: Wowzers 125 all out in 18.5 overs (Suresh 20 (23b, 3X4), Ravi 17(27 b, 1X4, Srikanth 3/20, Harish 2/1) beat EMC 125/5 in 20 overs (Krishna 40(36b, 6X4), Jeethendra 44 (43b, 5X4), Karthik 2/31) in super over

Full scorecard with wagonwheel, pitch-map is available  here.

Full scorecard with individual performance chart can be downloaded from here.

Performer of the Match: Jeethendra – MVP points 23.35

Post-match presentation: