Match Report

San Diego 2 started their season at Woodley against University at Woodley on a very hot day with no signs of any wind. The team decided to bat first IF Sandeep wins the toss. Luck did favor SD2 this time and SD2 decided to bat. Vishal along with Azhar went on to bat on a flat track. The new ball was swinging and bouncing. Vishal and Azhar took time to settle down and started ticking the singles along. Azhar was the first one to go when he flicked the ball straight to square leg. Soon Vishal got run out, as he did not pay enough attention on the ball. It was a pure case of careless dismissal. Suddenly score was 25/2. Qazi yorked himself and got bowled. Then Kumar was brilliantly caught at short midwicket (47/4 in 10 overs). The fielder dived full length in front of him to take the catch inches off the ground. Kudos to him! Jitu and Ramesh Badri had a small partnership going and the score reached 61/4 in 14 overs when Jitu was adjudged lbw. Sandeep went in and before he could set himself, he was given lbw for a ball that pitched outside the line of the stumps on the leg. Ameya also could not apply himself and he edged to first slip that took a good catch low on this left. Suddenly SD2 were reeling at 67/7 in 18 overs. Hasitha went in and joined Ramesh at the crease. Slowly and steadily SD2 started progressing. Both the batsmen started rotating the strike. Ramesh controlled his instincts to play the big shots, as the situation did not demand that. He succeeded in doing that. Hasitha was more attacking after 10 overs and SD2 scorecard read 143/7 in 34 overs. Ramesh completed his well-deserved, patient 50 with a single towards covers. Given the conditions, Ramesh played a brilliant knock. Hasitha decided to cut loose and hit a couple of boundaries before he skied one straight up and got out for a well deserving 37 (150/8 in 36 overs). Pradeep went in next as only 9 overs were left. Pradeep started off positively taking singles, and converting singles into two’s. Ramesh ran very hard between the wickets after 40 overs, given the fact he was batting there for more than 30 overs. Last 5 overs yielded around 53 runs for SD2 with Pradeep being the dominant scorer of the two. He hit a marvelous unbeaten 40 off 28 balls to pump up the score to 223/9 in 45 overs. Ramesh remained unbeaten on 76 very useful runs. Again SD2 batsman (Ramesh) and the tail-enders showed a strong character. Scoring 225 runs on Woodley was not easy. Looking at the conditions, SD2 had a good chance to defend it. Vishal and Sandeep started the innings and bowled a good line and length and it was Vishal who gave SD2 their first breakthrough in the first over. He got the ball full and swinging to get the batsman’s middle stump. Sandeep complimented Vishal by giving a low full toss just to see a great catch on his follow-through. He dived full length in front of him and took the catch one-handed leaving University 14/2 (2 overs). Vishal got the 3rd one with a slow full leg cutter. He got the batsman play a little early and had him plumb in front of the wicket. Pradeep replaced Sandeep and he bowled a beautiful line and length cutting the ball both ways. Sandeep came in for a 2 over second spell to try and get a wicket. He did get us a breakthrough. Sandeep got the 4th wicket when Pradeep took a well-judged catch running sideways at mid-off(59/4 in 15 overs). In the next over, Pradeep got one to move away from the left hander to see Vishal take a good catch at second slip (63/5 in 16). After a few overs, Hasitha came into bowl replacing Sandeep. Hasitha started slow in his bowling. Once he got his rhythm, he turned the ball away from the right handers and troubled them a lot. In the meanwhile, University had a nice partnership going to reach 103/5 in 22 overs. Hasitha’s 4th over created a tornado in University’s camp. He took 4 wickets in 1 over and the game was all over (one of their batsmen didn’t bat due to injury). His second ball saw Azhar do a smart stumping. His 4th ball was a dolly flighted full toss, which the batsman got totally confused about, and it hit him plumb in front of the wicket. His 5th ball was a slow turner where the batsman played away from his body to give a simple catch at short cover where Qazi gladly accepted it. His 6th ball was a ripper. He generated good amount of pace and bounce just to see the batsman get totally confused about. All he did was try to save his face. In the process he gloved it at short leg where Ramesh took an easy catch. So in short, HASITHA GOT A HATRICK! 105 all out in 23 overs, game over. University got all out for 105 and SD2 beat them comprehensively by 118 runs. Batting Highlights: Ramesh Badri 76 n.o. (103 balls) Pradeep 40 n.o. (28 balls) Hasitha 37 (44 balls) Jitendra 14 (26 balls) Bowling Highlights: Hasitha 4-0-17-4, Sandeep 7-0-34-2, Vishal 6-0-24-2 Pradeep 4-0-14-1