2020 APCL T30 - MAN OF THE MATCH (STARKS VS ABT) - TARA SINGH - 32* RUNS (48 BALLS, 4X1) and 3 Wickets (4-0-14-3) |
|
|
02/10/2020POSTED BY Apcl Admin |
|
 |
|
Cricket is gentleman's game... A Tie is always expected! It was like the scene from Dunkirk, the movie about the mass evacuation of Allied forces in the Battle of France, on this drizzly gloomy morning of the 9th of February, 2020, at the HCCA ground. The tigers were awaiting under the shed eager, sharing a few laughs, talking about the U-19 game and threatening each other not to check the scores in case it brings bad luck to the tiger cubs in Potchefstroom. The weather looking grey and dull, constant drizzle, with patches of stagnant water on the field peeking between the blades of grass. A few of the opposition players poured in, their expression stiff but firm. They look determined to play the game even if it requires buying a super sopper ( thats the HCCA spirit!- Ground was damp but not their spirit). Reluctantly Vice Captain @Abu went in for the toss and ABT opted to field first given the rainy conditions. But as we later on will see, the weather never subsided, and we pretty much played the entire game in drizzly and wet conditions as if we live in Washington state. Starks went on a rollicking start losing one wicket scoring over 50 runs in the 5th over. Sham started with bang with 25 runs in 14 balls but back to back wickets from @fasbir and @fazle reduced them to 57/3 in the 6th over. Starks had a decent partnership between Sumeer (46 runs) and Monish and carried them past 100 in the 13th over. Captain @fasbir took matter into his own hands and got the vital breakthrough, trapping Sumeer LBW with the score on 105/4. Then came a magical over from @nihad, who bowled a beautiful spell throughout the game, snapped up two wickets off two balls including their main batsman Monish. This gave Tigers the momentum and we quickly had the opposition in a corner at 105/6 during the mid-innings break. During the break, the Tigers were focused on wrapping the innings up by 150. But Starks had a different plan and executed the 2nd half of their innings well and built a partnership between their Captain Tara (32 not out) and Vishal(29) and took them to 163 in the 27th over. The tigers were able to stop the bleeding thanks to some brilliant death bowling by @Prokash and restricted them to 181/8 in the allotted 30 overs. The tigers went into the run chase with positive mindset, helped by a strong self-belief and positive mindset that has been built up in the team in the last few months. The opening pair of @juha and @abu again played like the great West Indian openers (Greenidge and Haynes) and built up a partnership of 69 in 9 overs and we were marching towards another victory. A loss of concentration by @juha and @prakash as well as a brilliant googly by Shareef caught @ami in web of spin and the Tiger were reduced to 80/3 in the 11th over. Then @abu and @prokash and built up another 50 partnership with @abu scoring another brilliant 70 off 63 balls. A leading edge off a leg glance brought an end to his innings with the score on 131/4 with another 51 runs required for victory. Some tight bowling and fielding by the Starks brought in a collapse as the required run rate inched upwards. Soon we were reduced 166/7 as we lost our in-form batsman @prokash, out stumped trying to go for a big one. A brilliant penultimate over by Shareef resulted in only 2 runs. With Tigers needing 13 runs off the last over, Captain @fasbir took the bull by the horns and smashed 12 runs to tie the game. The game was played in good spirits and the both teams were able to head to their dens with heads held up high. With 2 more games in hand, the Tigers are looking to go all the way and big the Cup back to their lair. With a TIE result, both ABT and Startks remained unbeaten and point table leaders. Result also made the tournament wide open for all teams in contention for top 2 places. Thanks to umpire Anzer ( Afghan Warriors) for excellent umpiring! His firm decision making about playable weather conditions specially when ABT were ready to leave the ground at a drop of water played a key role in completion of this game and at the end of the day, the game proved to be something everyone involved will remember for long long time! There were some excellent and MOM worthy performances from both sides, notably Abu, Fasbir and Prokash from ABT and Sumeer, Shareef and Tara from Starks. Umpire decided to declare Tara as MOM for his all-round performance (32* runs and 3 wickets). Would like to give Credit to Kazz for the catchy punch line of the report " Cricket is gentleman's game... A tie is always expected!!" Appreciation/Thanks from ABT: I would like to thank @rashed “Hooper” Bhai for being the super-sub batter for this game. His fielding and running between the wickets as well as game depth put some of us Tigers to shame. Your brilliant mind and presence is always welcomed amongst us. And you are a calming influence to us. Honorable mentions to @helal bhai, @golam, our official pizza boy and @sabbir who lost his drone somewhere in the gloomy grey skies! Thank you guys for coming to support us under such awful weather conditions. I know you guys would rather be home under blankets, watching Netflix (or be watching the replay of the Superbowl final for the 14th time 😉) eating our khichuri and egg curry! |
|
| You can also enter comments by CricClubs Login | ||
|
||
