The CouchExpert Staff
19th May, 2013
Match: MCC versus CITI
Venue: CECG, Bangalore
Toss: MCC won the toss and elected to bat.
Teams:
CITI
Overnight rains had given way to a pleasant morning. The outfield had dried considerably to show no traces of rain though the outfield did slow down.
Both teams looked charged up for the game. Both had vested interests. MCC needed to win by 79 or more runs to give themselves a shot at the trophy on net run rate and CITI had to defeat MCC by a similarly huge margin and then hope Wipro would lose by a similarly large margin to give them the title.
There was intent in both camps. MCC’s openers Bhargav and Guna seemed to be on the edge and looked to run at everything that eventually cost them the wicket of Bharath in the very first over when Guna called him for a non existent run.
Shankar’s 51 was the innings of the match
Guna and Chetan looked desperate to find the boundaries but Kranthi was up to the task by bowling himself and Srikanth for 7 overs straight. The strain of not being able to break away from CITI’s stranglehold showed on MCC as Guna and then Chethan soon fell.
It was evident by now that the wicket was slow and it would take considerable effort and patience to build a score here. Brothers Prasad and Shankar showed the way by being patient against a very determined and disciplined CITI attack.
The first boundary of the innings came in the 14th over when Shankar found the fence. He found the fence once more in the over and managed another three to eventually break away from the vice-like grip CITI had on them. The pair put on 60 in 8 overs before Prasad fell trying to up the rate.
Venu joined Shankar, who had by now found his feet and timing on this sluggish surface. Rehamathullah and Naresh failed to provide the control nor the penetration provided earlier by Srikanth, Kranthi and Niket and Shankar and Venu capitalized with quick runs in the end. A total of 118 in the end seemed a rand recovery from the precarious position of 41/3 at the end of 10 overs.
A very determined MCC came out to the field in defending 118. An equally charged up CITI set out to get the runs as quickly as they could. A good contest ensued with Varun looking to go after the bowling and MCC looking to peg the CITI openers on the back foot.
The new ball pair of Chethan and Guna complemented each other well as Chethan troubled the right-handers with outswingers from one end and Guna tucking them with inswingers from the other. Niket fell to a low catch in the second slip chasing a swinging ball from Guna.
Srikanth had a brilliant game with both bat and ball for CITI
A charged-up Guna sent back captain Kranthi in the same over as MCC used up the windy conditions to their great advantage. Chethan extracted appreciable movement and bounce off the wicket and even hit Vinayak on the head with a vicious bouncer.
Varun held fort as CITI kept losing wickets at the other end in regular intervals, but when he was run out in the 12th over, the onus of getting CITI across the line became their finisher Srikanth’s responsibility. With MCC’s death bowling being their strongest point, it set up a good contest.
Manish and Srikanth handed much of everything that Vijay and Venu threw at them keeping up with the run rate and threatening to chase down the target. Like in the first innings, the innings gained momentum once a few boundaries were hit.
Srikanth found the fence an even cleared it as he rapidly ate away at the target. The fall of Manish in the 18th over slowed things down for CITI as Shakeel failed to put Srikanth back on strike. The loss in momentum hurt CITI badly as Guna and Venu bowled tight overs to bowl MCC to a win.
With the win, MCC moved to the top of the table and will need Wipro to lose their final game later in the day to give them the trophy.
Scoring patterns for the two teams:
Full Scorecard
1st Inning Batting: Mmavericks Cricket Club, MCC
R B 4's 6's SR
Bhargav run out (Niket) 1 2 0 0 50.0
Guna c Rehamathullah b Kranthi 2 11 0 0 18.18
Chetan c Anurag b Niket 15 24 0 0 62.5
Shankar c Anurag b Rehamathullah 51 49 5 0 104.08
Prasad c Niket b Rehamathullah 16 23 1 0 69.57
Venu not out 12 12 1 0 100.0
Syed lbw b Rehamathullah 0 1 0 0 0.0
Extras(w 18, nb 2, lb 1) 21
Total (6 wickets; 20.0 overs) 118 5.90 RPO
Did Not Bat:
Shekar, Arun, Ankit, Yeshwanth, Vijay
Fall of Wicket: 1-1 ( Bhargav 0.4 ov ), 17-2 ( Guna 3.6 ov ), 30-3 ( Chetan 8.1 ov ), 90-4 ( Prasad 16.2 ov ), 118-5 ( Shankar 19.5 ov ), 118-6 ( Syed 19.6 ov )
1st Inning Bowling: CITI, Citi
O M R W EC AV EX
Srikanth 4.0 0 16 0 4.00 - (w 2, nb 1)
Kranthi 4.0 0 19 1 4.75 19.00 (w 3)
Naresh 4.0 0 27 0 6.75 - (w 5, nb 1)
Niket 4.0 0 21 1 5.25 21.00 (w 2)
Rehamathullah 4.0 0 34 3 8.50 11.33 (w 3)
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2nd Inning Batting: CITI, Citi
R B 4's 6's SR
Varun run out (Shankar) 27 30 3 0 90.0
Niket c Shankar b Guna 0 1 0 0 0.0
Kranthi c Syed b Guna 0 5 0 0 0.0
Vinayak c Syed b Chetan 2 8 0 0 25.0
Naveen c Yeshwanth b Venu 7 12 1 0 58.33
Rehamathullah c Chetan b Vijay 1 7 0 0 14.29
Manish b Venu 20 25 2 0 80.0
Srikanth b Venu 29 29 2 1 100.0
Shakeel not out 1 4 0 0 25.0
Extras(w 22, nb 1, b 1, lb 2) 26
Total (8 wickets; 20.0 overs) 113 5.65 RPO
Did Not Bat:
Anurag, Naresh
Fall of Wicket: 9-1 ( Niket 1.1 ov ), 10-2 ( Kranthi 1.6 ov ), 18-3 ( Vinayak 4.1 ov ), 36-4 ( Naveen 7.4 ov ), 47-5 ( Rehamathullah 9.4 ov ), 54-6 ( Varun 11.5 ov ), 96-7 ( Manish 17.5 ov ), 113-8 ( Srikanth 19.6 ov )
2nd Inning Bowling: Mmavericks Cricket Club, MCC
O M R W EC AV EX
Chetan 4.0 0 22 1 5.50 22.00 (w 4)
Guna 4.0 0 18 2 4.50 9.00 (w 5)
Venu 4.0 0 34 3 8.50 11.33 (w 1, nb 1)
Arun 3.0 0 12 0 4.00 - (w 2)
Vijay 4.0 0 16 1 4.00 16.00 (w 5)
Prasad 1.0 0 8 0 8.00 -
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Post match ceremony
Full match report with individual performance details
You can download the pdf from here.
Performer of the Match: Shankar.
Match Result: MCC defeated CITI by 5 runs.
Points: MCC (2) CITI (0)
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