Match Report

After registering an impressive victory against the Colts, SD1 was ready for an important clash against Cosmos Cricket Club. 3 changes were made to the team from the 1 that played against the Colts. Joe, Ibrahim and Benny replaced Ganga, Afroze and Hrishi. Ananth was leading the side in the absence of Afroze. Ananth got off to a good start as the skipper by winning the toss and electing to bat on what looked like a fairly flat track. However it seemed like the decision backfired when SD1 were down 5 with just 90 on the board. Gaurav got bowled by a peach of a delivery from Hopton which pitched on middle and leg and swung late to take the off stump along with it. Joe started positively but played one shot too many and got out LBW to a delivery which came in to him. Ananth walked in at a time when the opponents were grinning to be at the top. He put away the first ball he faced from their strike bowler (Hopton) over the fence for a six to command a confident start .Rahil and Ananth consolidated for sometime without impacting the scoring rate. Rahil was looking quite impressive with a couple of his pull shots and some nudges for singles before miscuing a pull shot and giving a simple catch to square leg. Brij came and left as quickly after being trapped LBW by delivery which shaped into him. Shawn followed him and played some really impressive shots before his patience got the better of him and was out LBW while playing across. All this while Ananth stood his ground and played some really impressive shots to keep the scoreboard ticking. Thereafter Ananth and Hafiz joined forces and consolidated the inning with some intelligent batting. They kept the scoreboard ticking without taking any unnecessary chances. Soon Ananth reached his 50, his 2nd in as many games this season. Cosmos skipper introduced their strike bowler Hopton to break this threatening partnership and the move paid off when Ananth played a full toss straight back to the bowler which was well caught on his follow through. At this stage SD1 still had more than 15 over to play because of which the skipper decided to send Rubal up the order in order to play some time and hold back the strokemakers Benny and Ibrahim back for the last 10 overs. The move paid back really well as Rubal and Hafiz consolidated the inning while keeping the scorecard ticking. Hafiz was out to a dubious LBW decision after making a useful contribution and then Rubal fell while trying to accelerate the scoring. The fall of 2 wickets in quick succession got Benny and Ibrahim to the crease. Cosmos sensed an opening and decided to attack and bowl SD1 out. Much to their surprise both Benny and Ibrahim counter attacked effectively attacked which force them reverse their tactics. However this did not deter Ibrahim and Benny and both continued to play their shots and clear the field with relative ease. Ibrahim was out bowled while trying to score fast but not before he had played a very useful cameo. Vatsan the last man in stood in there supporting Benny. Benny played some outrageous shots, the 2 huge sixes off one over from Hopton stood out. It was one of the most brilliant exhibitions of hitting. He reached a well deserved victory and helped SD1 post a huge score of 301. Benny and Ibrahim stole the show at the end but that might not have been possible without the foundation setup by Ananth, Hafiz and Rubal. Cosmos faced an uphill struggle which became all the more difficult because of the brilliant opening spell from Rubal. He was unclucky not to have more than 1 wicket after beating the bat so consistently. Vatsan at the other end struggled to get into his usual rhythm, Abhishek Powar specifically played him well. Hafiz provided the 1st breakthrough when he had Abhishek playing a lofted shot to sqaure leg, he was deceived by the late swing. Rubal then got Hopeton out trying to avoid a very well directed bouncer. With two wickets down Brij came into bowl the last over before the drink’s break and the very first ball he bowled a beauty of a delivery which fell short of good length and the batsman spooned it back to him. In the same over he bagged another wicket and continued to bowl brilliantly. Thereafter the asking run rate kept going up and all the bowlers had to do was bowl on the stumps. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals with Hafiz taking 3 in all, Brij taking 4, Benny rounding his brilliant day in the field with 2 and Gaurav the official game finisher for SD1 took his customary last wicket. Cosmos was out for a meager 160 with Abhishek and Amar making some mentionable contributions. However their fate was sealed long back when Benny and Ibramin joined forces with the bat.