Brief Scores:
Asteroids: 192 for 7 in 45 Overs
Abhishek – 32
Stanford – 2 – 193 for 6 in 40 Overs
Zach – 87
Priyankar / Asif – 2 wickets.
https://www.crichq.com/#matches/379986/1st_innings
Asteroids won the toss and elected to bat on a wet Saturday Morning. Rohan and Venky were tasked with giving them a solid start. They started off slowly and respected the good balls, the Stanford A bowlers were very disciplined and the opening bowlers kept the ball in right areas and did not concede even a single extra. It was a sedate start and at the drinks break Asteroids were 37 for 1 in 15 overs
With wickets in hand the Instruction given to the openers was to attack in the next 15 overs. The openers started pushing it and thats when the first wicket fell when Rohan (19) got runout unable to get back into his crease. Venky (25) soon fell caught behind , trying to cut the ball. Akshay and Athul were tasked to increase the score rate. Both players ran well between the wickets but were unable to find the boundary. Athul fell trying to hit over the top. Abhishek ( 32 ) was next in and he set out attacking from ball 1 , he played some delightful sweeps and cuts of the spinners and Akshay (24 ) played a good supporting hand. At the end of 30 over Asteroids were at 90 for 3. With 15 overs left, the plan was to get 100 and the middle order sure lived up to it. Some quick run a ball partnerships between Arun D ( 23 ) , Gireesh ( 21 ) and Vishnu ( 24 ) propelled Asteroids to below par score of 192/7 in 30 overs.
With a below par score , it was turn of the Asteroids bowlers who have been exceptional in the last two games to win us the match. Vishnu and Arun D were the opening bowlers , but both bowlers could not find their footing on the pitch due the taping on the pitch. But nevertheless the kept a check on the runs. Vishnu struck first removing the openers to a well caught catch at gully, Athul was brought 1st change and he quickly struck by trapping the batsmen lbw. At the drinks break stanford were 55/2 in 15 overs.
The next 15 overs were crucial for both teams, Asteroids needed to get wickets and Stanford need to milk the bowlers without loosing any wickets. Priyankar was brought into the attack and immediately struck to by deceiving the batsmen with his loop. That brought 2 left handers to the crease.
Zach (87) played a mature hand , he put away the bad balls and took singles of the good ones. With Required rate of 4 needed it was exactly what was needed. Sunnyvale bowlers found it hard to bowl to 2 left handers and could not build the pressure by keeping the batsmen on strike. Singles were conceded easily and the batsmen ran well between wickets. At the end of 2nd Drinks break Stanford were comfortably placed at 138 for 3 in 30 overs.
With 50+ runs to defend , Asteroids had only one option of trying to get wickets to win the game. Asif was brought into the attack and he kept things in check by bowling dot balls , his control was really good but the batsmen didn’t really need to anything special and continued to milk the bowlers. One of lefties tried to hit Asif out of ground but ended skying a catch to Giri at long on.
Asif and Priyankar struck again but it was too late. Zach remained not out for well made 87 and ensured Stanford won with 4 wickets in hand.
We were a good 40 runs short on a good ground and a batting wicket , the bowlers tried their best. But unfortunately were unable to break the 2 left handers.
Negatives:
Too much respect given to the opposition bowlers.
Batters not even getting close to the planned score
Very high dot ball percentage
No urgency in running between wickets / batting.
Bowling:
Spinners bowling too many loose balls. 2 short and down leg balls an over.
Positives:
Middle order looks in good touch.
Bowlers were disciplined and bowled to the plan ( unfortunately too less runs on board )
Fielding was up to standard.
Sunnyvale Cricket Club 