The rains stayed away and The CouchExpert T20 Championship got off to a sparkling start with NSN, GE and CECC registering wins. Here’s how the games panned out:
Match 1: NSN versus ACT
13th July 2013 (7:30 am – 10:30 am)
ACT won the toss and elected to bat first
The game started under gloomy skies, the occasional odd drizzle and lazy soothing breeze best suited for a lazy weekend extended morning sleep. Yet, ACT openers Prashanth and Vinay started brightly punishing a slightly errant NSN opening spell by both Manish and Nitin. Prashanth, coming back from a shoulder injury shrugged off the indifferent form he showed in The CouchExpert Sunday League T20 two months ago and got into his stride with confident feet movement and strokes. If anything he seemed hesitant finishing his strokes showing signs that the shoulder injury was still preying in his mind.
Anil’s big hitting in the end overs proved crucial for NSN. © The CouchExpert
The pair kept rotating the strike thereby ensuring that they were really under no pressure for any length of time to attempt a rash stroke. Runs flowed and by the time Vinay got out in the 10th over, the runs were flowing at 8 an over. Deepak joined Prashanth and the pair stuck to the formula of keeping the dot balls to a minimum. Deepak ensured that Prashanth got as much of the strike and Prashanth gradually opened up to up the scoring rate post the 12th over. Prashanth showed tremendous fitness as he pushed Deepak into taking many 2s and 3s well into the innings. Prashanth’s 57 set the platform up for ACT to get to 170-plus, but a late stutter meant they had to settle for a score of 152. As for NSN, barring captain Gangadhar, the rest struggled to bowl to their field or to a set plan.
NSN responded to chasing 153 quite brilliantly as openers Avinash and Jithendra started quite confidently against the pace-spin combo of Paddy and Thomas. The pair was measured in its approach keeping the risks to a minimum whilst always keeping abreast with the required rate. Only the extra pace of Rakesh seemed to hurry them up in an otherwise easily constructed opening wicket partnership of 61 in slightly over 8 overs. ACT, over time, have relied on their many slow bowlers to restrict opposition batsmen and quite successfully too.
Bowling pitchmap – ACT’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
Bowling pitch map – NSN’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
The spin combination of Shithu and Rohit slowed down the innings with Shithu accounting for Jithendra and Arun while Rohit accounted for Prakhar. And when the captain Gangadhar was run out in the 14th over, the asking rate had crept up to 8.3. Anil, then, played a cameo taking ACT’s captain for 17 runs in the 15th over to reduce the chase to slightly over run-a-ball. In the span of an over Anil had turned the game on its head and Sharath was left to rue his decision to bowl a second over.
Sharath quickly turned to his quickest bowler Rakesh and he responded by knocking over the very dangerous Anil to even things out. With 25 still needed and Rakesh still breathing fire and NSN already 6-down, ACT still had a chance.
As it turned out, 10 were needed off the last over with 2 wickets in hand for NSN bowled by Paddy. In a remarkably eventful over, Deepak dropped a catch at covers that cost his team 2 runs and Paddy missed to collect a throw from the boundary to effect a run-out as well. With 3 needed off the last ball, Paddy bowled a wide down the legside. The batsmen then scrambled a 2 to long-off to round-off a remarkable win for NSN off the last ball.
Brief scores: ACT 152/4 in 20 overs (Prashanth Mathur 57 (51b, 5X4), Deepak 32 (27b, 1X4), Rakesh 1/31, Prakhar 1/34) lost to NSN 153/8 in 20 overs (Jithendra 36 (28b, 5X4), Anil 26 (21b, 3X4, 1X6), Shithu 2/28, Rakesh 1/19) by 2 wickets
Full scorecard of the match can be found here
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Prashanth Mathur – MVP points 16.45 (Batting: 14.45 Fielding 2.0)
Post-match presentation
Match 2: GE versus Unisys
13th July 2013 (11:30 am – 2:30 pm)
GE won the toss and elected to bat first
GE won the toss and elected to bat under skies that was bright for the first time in the day as daylight broke through the clouds seemingly vanishing the gloom with it. Having won The CouchExpert T30 Quadrangular only a fortnight earlier, GE started the game and the tournament as one of the title contenders. The opening pair of Shimjith and Rajnikanth that had served them so well in the previous tournament were in their elements as they went after Unisys’s new ball pairing of Prashanth and captain Harish from the word go. They rattled along at a rate of 10 an over in the first 4 overs before Rajnikanth was snapped up by Sanjeev off Murthy.
Abhsihek Pathak of GE seen in action. He produced a quick spell. © The CouchExpert
Abhishek joined Shimjith and the pair looked to keep the score rattling along. In the quest of scoring quick runs, GE lost quick wickets as Unisys clawed their way back with back-to-back wickets of Shimjith, Abhishek, Dheeraj and Mayank in a span of 4 overs. It required the calm and reliable hand of Arvind in partnership with Harsha to steady the ship as GE ground out runs with singles and twos and the odd boundary. Arvind opened out towards the end to play punishing strokes on the leg side as he took GE past 150.
Unisys had a horror of a start losing Sharath and Vivek in the very first over to Dheeraj. The GE bowlers Dheeraj and Abhishek kept the lid tight as Unisys struggled to score any runs at all. Almost every mistake of theirs was punished by GE with their wickets. Even slacking slightly between the wickets cost them their wicket as Harish found out while going for a single in the 4th over.
Sanjeev and Bharath then went about repairing the innings with a careful partnership. With the run-worm hardly getting off the floor, GE were firmly in control of the game by now, it was a case of minimizing the margin of defeat for Unisys. Gradually Sanjeev and Bharath found their touch and eventually the odd boundary as well once the opening bowlers gave way to slow bowlers. The pair managed to put on 58 runs for the 4th wicket in just under 10 overs before Sanjeev fell victim to another run out by Vinoth.
Pitch map during Unisys’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
Pitch map of GE’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
The introduction of Vinoth into the bowling attack also spelt doom for Unisys as he snapped up 3 wickets in his 1.1 overs. In between all this, Arvind managed to hit the stumps from deep point to runout Mallik to round off a miserable day for Unisys where nothing much went for them. Their captain Harish acknowledged saying, “we are a far better team than what we have shown ourselves to be today. Just about everything went wrong for us. We should be able to do a lot better in our coming games.”
Brief scores: GE 153/6 in 20 overs (Arvind 50 not out (41b, 6X4), Harsha 25 (16b, 3X4), Murthy 2/12) beat Unisys 89 all out in 17.1 overs (Sanjeev 33 (42b, 3X4), Bharath 21 (31b, 3X4), Vinoth 3/1, Dheeraj 2/12) by 64 runs
Full scorecard of the match can be found here
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Arvind – MVP points 16.62 (Batting: 13.27 Fielding: 4 Bowling: -0.65)
Post-match presentation
Match 3: CECC versus Wowzers
14th July 2013 (8:30 am – 11:30 am)
Wowzers won the toss and elected to field
CECC started the game without its captain and vice-captain as they were unavailable. After spraying his first handful of deliveries on either side of the pitch, Wowzers’s new ball bowler managed to land one on target that found the stand-in captain Goutham’s top edge to give Wowzers a tremendous start.
Pitch map of Wowzers’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
Pitch map of CECC’s batting innings. © The CouchExpert
The pair brought up the team 50 in 5 overs and when Shoukath deposited one of his booming drives over the long-off boundary CECC seemed to be running away with the game very early. Things turned around when another screaming drive of Shoukath seemed heading to the boundary when Wowzers’s captain Ravi intervened to take a very sharp catch at covers. It cut open the skin on his thumb and had him tend to it and sit out for a bit, but there was little doubt that he had produced the magic his team needed in bringing his team back into the game.
The introduction of Karthik further dented CECC as he sent back Gokul and Bhargav off successive deliveries. Gautam joined Jobin and the pair resorted to milking the bowling while riding troubled waters. Just as Jobin seemed to be branching out into playing pleasing drives a break in concentration accounted for him. Gautam, then joined by his twin Gaurav, kept maneuvering the fielding with drives and dabs. The twins were busy between the wickets and they put on 45 runs in a little over 6 overs to put the innings back on track. Eventually CECC finished with 161 and Karthik was the standout performer for Wowzers keeping the CECC middle-order in check with his nagging accuracy.
Victorious CECC team at the end of the game. © The CouchExpert
CECC’s opening pair of Goutham and Gaurav kept Wowzer’s in check with their discipline and lines. Wowzers’s openers looked to shuffle to offside while looking to make runs on the leg side. Both openers perished in this pursuit. Captain Ravi walked in and played a watchful hand so as to prevent further damage. Bhargav, though, had Suresh caught pulling in his first over. The bowling hero for Wowzers, Karthik, came in and started out aggressively looking to play powerful strokes and looked the only Wowzers batsman looking to take the fight to the CECC camp.
The introduction of Dinesh changed all that. He rattled the Wowzers’s middle-order with his pace and soon sliced through the middle-over in a 3 over spell that fetched him 4 wickets. With Shoukath backing his thrilling batting cameo with 2 wickets with the ball, the innings hastened to an end in the 18th over giving CECC a comfortable 75-run win.
Brief scores: CECC 161/9 in 20 overs (Shoukath 31(19b, 3X4, 1X6), Gautam Rajagopalan 33 (36b, 2X4), Karthik 3/21, Pruthvi 2/33) beat Wowzers 86 all out in 17.3 overs (Karthik 18 (21b, 1X4), Ravi 14 (23b, 1X4), Dinesh 4/14, Shoukath 2/18) by 75 runs
Full scorecard of the match can be found here
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Dinesh Poojary – MVP points 15.34 (Batting: 0.81 Bowling: 14.53)
Post-match presentation:
Points Table
Upcoming Games:
20th July
- 7:30 am – NSN versus CECC
- 11 am – ACT versus THBS
21st July
- 7:30 am – Boltz versus Unisys
- 11 am – GE versus IDM Cricketers
- 2:45 pm– EMC versus IDM Cricketers
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