The CouchExpert Staff
13th April, 2013
Match: CECC vs Cognizant
Venue: CECG, Bangalore
Toss: CECC won the toss and elected to bat.
In a game that saw both sides experiment with selection and choices of players for various positions, CECC’s many starts and stops came back to hurt them in the end. And badly so.
Electing to bat first against a new set of players Cognizant were trying out, CECC started reasonably well getting to 14/0 in 2 overs and 35/0 in 5 overs before Jobin’s indifferent start came to an end looking to up the rate. Soon, Goutham, who looked to be in a hurry was undone by Natarajan’s loopy off-breaks having him edge an attempted turn to leg for a single to short mid-wicket. Shoukath’s run-out for 1 soon after meant the innings was off-rails and needed a partnership to put it back on track.
Ashsih with 22 and Bhargav with 18 built what looked a promising partnership but both got out when quick runs were needed to achieve the target of 140 that seemed par for the wicket. Gaurav’s lusty hitting not withstanding Maraswamy and Niraj pegged the lower order back with repeated strikes bundling out CECC for 114.
Bhargav’s 18 and 1-wkt haul being one of the few positives for CECC
As the Cognizant captain Himakanth, who hurt his leg while bowling, later said “we are are glad that many players we tried out today played to potential.” CECC’s captain Muthu was more rueful with “not able to make the most of the powerplay that put pressure on the middle order.”
A target of 116 was never going to be enough to defend and with Goutham giving away 15 off the first over, things only got difficult. Triya however produced a good burst of 4 overs straight up producing 3 chances only for CECC to grass 2 of them.
Indifferent bowling and fielding hurt CECC as everytime they built pressure the resulting chance was not taken. Dilshad played freely attacking spinners and quicker men alike as Cognizant coasted to a 6 wicket win with 4 overs to spare.
Brief Scores:
CECC 114 all out in 20 overs (Goutham 24 (22b, 3X4), Ashish 22 (20b, 1X4)) lost to Cognizant 115/4 in 16 overs (Dilshad 39 not out, Bhargav 1/9) by 6 wickets
Post match discussion with the captains
Match Result: Cognizant beat CECC by 6 wickets
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