IIndians X1 made a huge leap toward snagging the inaugural Biggie Rankine 2-day red ball competition, with a hard-fought victory over the Morvin Brooks X1 at the Jimmy Powell Oval over the weekend. Having brushed aside the Danny Greaves X1 by an innings and 73 runs over the previous weekend, the Indian team were rearing to get stuck into the task of also defeating the Morvin Brooks X1. Employing the same strategy of winning the toss and bowling first, Morvin Brooks X1 were put in to bat and managed a paltry 153 in their first innings. Only Umroy Williams put up any resistance to the Indian bowling with a classy 61. Anubhav Dhar ran through the Morvin Brooks innings taking 7 for 39. The Indians then batted and posted a total of 232 giving them a lead of 79, with all their batters making a contribution to the total. Top score of the innings was Sachin Diwangana with 51, Karthik Jayaraj with 43 and Mohan Manivannan with 38. Sam Foster took 3 for 36 with his occasional off-spin. Morvin Brooks X1 made a huge fightback in their second innings amassing 234 all out with significant knocks from Yanich Henry 73, captain Sam Foster 63, and Umroy Williams, who had a good game all-round, chipping in with 32. This left the Indians X1 with a target of 156 to achieve an outright win. They started the chase very nervously, losing 2 early wickets to unfortunate runouts. This left Anubhav Dhar (32) and the ever-patient Karthic Jayaraj (37) to steady the ship. Morvin Brooks X1 continued to plod away and was able to get wickets at crucial points in the game, however a few dropped catches and a mis-stumping was to be their undoing. Indians X1 launched a T20 style assault in the last 5 overs, led by Thilina Madushan (34) to seal the victory for the Indians by 3 wickets. |
