Good Team Effort helps Asteroids beat Stanford

It was a beautiful day for cricket with a dewy and damp field. Asteroid captain won the toss and had no hesitation to bat first. Anoop K and Hari C were the openers who were tasked to give Asteroids a solid start. Anoop(35) was in full flow from ball one , driving on the up , chipping the ball in the gaps and running well between wickets. Hari played second fiddle and picked up singles and doubles and kept the score board ticking. After a 60 run opening stand Anoop fell to good catch at mid off. Arun D was the next batsmen and both batsmen ensured no more wickets were lost till the drinks break. Asteroids went into the break at 65 for 1 in 15 overs.

With a solid base set by the openers it was crucial not to throw away the momentum. Hari’s running between wickets was exceptional and he had good partners to support him. Arun and Hari kept scoring 4 to 6 runs every over without taking any risks and quickly added 40 runs for the 2nd wicket before Arun(27) fell to an identical dismissal as Anoop. Hari decided to bat through and was supported well by Akshay. On the last ball before drinks Hari got out bowled to a tired slog for a well made 47.

Asteroid went into the second break looking comfortable at 130 for 3 in 30 overs.

At the start of the 3rd session 2 quick wickets fell but Rohan and Sathy ensured the momentum was not lost. Rohan was back in the runs, scoring a quick 31 and ensured Asteroids reached a good score of 197 in 45 overs.

With a good score on board, it was up to the bowlers to step in. Sathy and Pramod were the opening bowlers and Sathy struck in his second over going through the Openers defense and castling his stumps. The other Opener Guru decided to attack Pramod and hit him for a couple of boundaries, but Pramod had the last laugh bowling a lovely dipping out swinger to trap Guru right in front of his stumps. Chetan and debutant Prabhakar were brought on first change and Stanford batsmen look to attack both bowlers. Kunal got hold of some good sweeps of Chetan which kept Stanford in the hunt. Stanford went into the first break at 55 for 2 in 15 overs.

The plan for second session was to bowl dots and increase the asking run rate. Both Prabhakar and Chetan started of well. Chetan picked up Kunal to a good catch from Hari, but Sumukh and Adnesh kept fighting. They put away anything short and took advantage of the short balls. Just when a partnership was building , Sumukh got run out to a good bit of fielding Sathy. Arun D was brought on to bowl more dots and got the wicket of Adnesh in his first over. Stanford went to break at 105 for 5 in 30 overs.

With 92 required of 90 and 5 wickets in hand Stanford batsmen decided to attack and ensure the asking run rate does not cross 6 an over. Arun and Athul were brought on and bowled 6 quick overs which yielding less than 3 runs each. The run rate and pressure started to get to the batsmen. Athul struck twice to move into tail and Sathy and Chetan cleaned up the last 2 wickets.

Asteroids pulled of a convincing win by 42 runs.

MOM: Hari C ( 47 Runs and 1 Catch )

MVP: Sathy ( 2 wickets , 2 Run outs , 1 Catch and 15 runs )

Pro’s

1. Good positive batting.

2. No dropped catches

3. Good running between wickets

Cons:

1. Not ruthless enough.

2. Fielding gets sloppy under pressure.

3. Fitness levels needs improvement