Match Analysis: Warriors vs Heroes

Match Analysis: Warriors vs Heroes

*****************************************

This was one of those unexpected match results which raise your eyebrow.

Three games were played in the weekend and the other two results were somewhat expected.

With the firepower Wayne State had, it was expected to be a comfortable win against a struggling Cobra team. Saginaw too are looking very good with the team spirit after a win against Heroes. So they would win against Oakland Gold, it was also an outcome with no surprise. But the first match of the day definitely shocked many. It was an aging but experienced team Warriors against a very balanced and relatively young team Heroes.

Heroes chose to bat first after a toss win. Their lineup was full strength usual eleven. Warriors started with a surprise opening bowler Salahuddin. His first over was dead straight full length balls. Those are easy to defend but not easy hit big because with gentle the pace and long on long off in place, the mistime can cost a wicket. Anupom tried to play a little late on cover but played on to stump. The early break through continued in the 3rd over with spectacular catch at long on by Syed Ashraf, he covered almost 20 yards in running to get the ball. These two early wicket slowed down the run rate under 4.5. When Anijit and Rossi was just settling down the early blow, Jaffrey and Maruf took 2 more wickets in consecutive overs, both catches. To make thing worse a run out and a catch followed in the next overs reducing Heroes to 45/6 after 10 Overs.

Heroes top bowler and batsman Fahim played yet another superb innings to rescue them from there. His quick 51 (30 Balls) was a display of power hitting. By the time Jaffrey (4-0-21-3) picked him up in last over, the damage was already done.

A total of 122 looked comfortable with the quality of bowling Heroes had. But execution was not very good on the day. Too many short balls and weak fielding cost them the match. Of course we must mention the valiant batting by Salahuddin and Maruf Joy in the top order. The flying start Salahuddin gave them (56/1 after 8 ov) was continued to 14th over (91/2), thanks to great batting by Maruf Joy. Apart from Fahim, nobody could control runs. After 16th over the match suddenly got a little interesting when Sumon and Sonet got out in consecutive overs. When Jaffrey came to bat, the asking was a run a ball. Both Farid and Jaffrey and later Taufiq dealt with singles and the gift of wide balls from heroes helped them a lot. With two cover drive boundaries Jaffrey almost took the team the target. But there was a brain freeze by Jaffrey and Taufiq in the last over when the match was already tied and they hit skiers instead of going for singles. Heroes managed to take two good catches but only to give away another wide ball to lose the match.

In hindsight, Heroes would blame themselves for not making more runs from top orders and bowling too many short balls. Warriors will take the win gladly and showed a resilient character to chase the target. Both the team now qualified for second round but it is not still clear who will get the top spot. Surely all the teams will raise their game level in the second round where every mistake will cost more.