Report by Parth
MVP: Natty/Jimmy
The Blazers went out to bat first and rushed out of the gates. A great start from Jimmy and Natty saw the Blazers race to 95 by the 17th over when Jimmy was caught behind. Natty and Parth continued the same pace as the scoreboard didn’t stop ticking. They reached 144 by the 25th over before they lost the second wicket. From there, they hit a tail spin with Parth, Sparry, and Nachi being removed in quick succession, falling to 172 for five wickets by the 30th before Tejas and Arun revived the innings with a very positive partnership. The team crossed 200 by the 34th over and aimed for another 100 in the final ten overs. They nearly got there too with Tejas, Arun, Raj, and Sathy all batting extremely well not only by hitting boundaries but also pushing the field and running hard between the wickets. All in all, it was a great batting show that was aided by many dropped catches and 32 extras.
The Panthers’ innings was dependent on hitting boundaries and taking on the field as they attempted to take down the total. However, an excellent show in the field by Sathy destroyed the Panthers’ attack. Sathy picked up four wickets (on four great catches), plus effected a run out and took two catches to account for a whopping seven wickets. The bowling for the most part was very tight and consistent with the exception of a few loose balls. As a whole, all of our bowlers bowled well and our fielding backed them up most of the time. Sathy opened the bowling and immediately got Uday’s prized wicket in his first over having him caught at Mid On. Cheetah opened the bowling with Sathy and while didn’t get a wicket in his first spell he tied down one end by choking the runs. First change Jwal then came in to take two key wickets with the score hovering around 65/3 at first break. The second session was a tough one as Jasvinder and Aniruddha from the Panthers formed a partnership and started scoring at will pushing the scoring run up. However, Sathy was brought in for his second spell and immediately had Aniruddha caught at the Long Off boundary and followed it up with a brilliant run out off of Sparshith’s over to bring the score to around 150/5 at the second break. Immediately after the break, Sathy had Jasvinder caught at Mid On (a brilliant catch by Parth who ran all the way from Short Cover to Mid On to take the catch) and another one caught in the covers. This triggered a Panthers collapse where the clean-up crew of Sparry, Chetan and Arun wrapped up the innings around the 36th over with 1 wicket each. A shout out to Raj S for some sharp stuff behind the wickets on a pitch that had uneven bounce.
Out of the many positives from the game, the fact that our top order produced this way was a definite bonus because it set the tone for the entire match. Another major positive was our catching. The difference in the game was that we held onto them and they didn’t. But at the same time we had a couple of negatives too. The loss of 3 quick wickets in the top/middle order is a bit of a concern, and could become a problem when we’re out there chasing a big total. Also our fielding and demeanor on the field became a bit lethargic during the second session of the Panthers’ innings. We have got to stay upbeat throughout the entire course of the match and back up our bowlers every single ball.
Overall, though it was a total team effort and it was a very successful game and we should only continue to keep getting better as a team.
Sunnyvale Cricket Club 