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NCA seals a place in the Finals with a memorable win
A Scintillating knock from Srimanth and an stupendous all round effort from Arun
sealed a place for NCA in the finals of the 2007 Tennessee cricket league.
NCA won the toss and elected to bat on a unsually cooler day at Rhodes Park Cricket
ground. In what promised to be a good contest between bat and ball, NCA heavyweights
Arun and Sujay opened the batting against the Pace attack of Naseer and Zaheer.
NCA got off to a shaky start when Sujay was caught behind by Gideon off Zaheer in
the second over of the innings. Jaideep was the next man at the crease. Disciplined
bowling combined with a Wet and slow outfield almost made it impossible to score
boundaries. An aggressive Jaideep perished trying to up the scoring rate. A fatal
attempt to pull a short ball from Zaheer that kept low, crashing onto his stumps.
Srinath was the next man in.
Arun quickly analyzed the situation and decided that runs have to be grafted on
this surface and with big hitters to come, keeping wickets in tact was neccessary.
Srinath and Arun did well to see off the overs from aggressive Zaheer and accurate
Naseer. But Srinath got out, trying to increase the declining scoring rate by trying
to hoist Anish over mid-off, where Asad took a superb diving catch. NCA was struggling
at 25/3 off 6.6 overs. This brought Srimanth to the crease. Arun and Srimanth stabilized
the innings grafting singles and doubles. NCA were precariously placed at 50/3 after
15 overs.
Starting watchfully, the Hyderabad batsman then unleashed a array of exquisite shots
from the cricketing manual. All of a sudden it was looking a different ball game.
Bimal,Alam and Mayank bore the brunt of the assault, as NCC barely had time to react
to what had hit them. Arun was completely overshadowed, but played a wonderful role
by rotating the strike and let Srimanth take the honours. NCC finally breathed easy,
when Srimanth was caught at Midwicket boundary by a diving Asad off the bowling
of Naseer.
Srimanth and Arun took NCA from a tottering 25/3 to an impressive 119/4 off 21 overs.
Srimanth has 4 boundaries and 3 classic sixes in his well made 45 ball 56.Arun stepped
up the tempo and hit a couple of boundries before being caught and bowled by Alam
for a well made 50. Abhi hit a massive six off Naseer and NCA lost a couple of wickets
towards the end in the urgency to score as many as possible. NCA innings finished
at 155/7, a very competitive score on this ground. Zaheer was the pick of the bowlers
with figures of 2/14. Alam, Anish and Naseer had a wicket each.
Gideon and Alam opened the innings for NCC and Ramadass and Sujay opened the bowling
for NCA. An aggressive Alam looked threatening as he got off to a good start with
couple of boundaries. Alam played one shot too many, as Satish held on to a good
catch at Mid-on, off a beautiful delivery from Sujay. NCC were pushed further on
the backfoot when Kishore was run out the very next ball by a brilliant piece of
work from Jaideep. The NCC captain was clearly not happy with the decision. Gideon
was then, caught behind by Ravi to a peach of a delivery from Ramadass leaving NCA
in dire straits at 3/14 off 3 overs.
That brought Naseer and Zaheer onto the crease. The brothers curbed their aggressive
instincts and rotated the strike to keep score board ticking. Arun brought himself
onto bowl alongside Hitesh, and the pair kept a tight line and length. Strangled
for runs, Zaheer got run out in a mix-up where both the batsmen were left stranded
at one end, trying to take a single. Abhi ran to the runner's end to take off the
bails and bring an end to Zaheer's innings. Anish was the next batsman in and was
toyed by mesmering flighted bowling from Arun. Naseer kept the scoreboard ticking
at the other end mixing caution with aggression. He picked up a few boundaries with
inside out shots over cover including a elegant six. Just when the partnership was
looking threatening, Anish was runout to a brilliant piece of fielding from Srimanth
in the deep. A quick pickup and a pinpoint bullet throw for Ravi to uproot the stumps
to leave NCC in dire straits at 77/5 off 15 overs. Arun brought an end to Mayank's
misery by disturbing his stumps. Asad was caught by Satish on the midwicket boundary
trying to go for runs as NCA tumbled to 99/7 after 20.
With more than 50 runs required off the last 5 overs, Naseer was stumped by Ravi
very next ball off a delightful flighted delivery from Arun, trying to hit the ball
out of the park and with that ending any hopes of NCC win. Nazeer had 5 boundaries
and a six in his knock of 46. Ravi did a magnificient job behind the stumps for
a makeshift wicketkeeper taking 2 superb catches, a stumping and effecting 2 crucial
runouts.
Jaideep bowled a very tight line mixing his slower deliveries well with precise
yorkers. He got one to get through the defences of Bimal. Rajesh hit a couple of
boundaries, but he along with a slight drizzle could not deny the inevitable.
NCC innings ended at 125/9 off 25 overs. NCA won the match by 30 runs to guarantee
a place in the finals.
Srimanth was undoubtebly the Man of the Match for his Brilliant batting that turned
the game on its head. Arun finished the match with figures of 3-11 and 50 invaluable
runs. Jaideep, Ramadass and Sujay took one wicket each.
Scores:
NCA 155/7 in 25 overs (Srimanth 56, Arun 50, Abhi 11*, Zaheer 2/14)
NCC 125/9 in 25 overs (Naseer 46, Rajesh 14, Arun 3/11 )
Teams
NCA - Arun (C), Sujay, Jaideep, Srinath, Srimanth, Ramadass, Abhi, Siraj,
Ravi, Hitesh and Satish.
NCC - Kishore (C), Gideon, Alam, Zaheer, Nazeer, Anees, Asad, Mayank, Bimal,
Rajesh, Ryan.
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