It was a clear sky, abundant sunshine morning, ideal for cricket. Rakshith helped setup the boundary of 175 feet, one that would be hit over many many times in the next few hours. Singh started the proceedings with coin toss. Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl first, not a surprising move since they have a strong batting lineup.

Siva and Parvath opened the innings for AllStars. Challengers opted for spin attack with Suraj and Yasar. Both spinners bowled very good line and length and kept the opener in check. Kumar was introduced to  make use of the new ball, though line and length were very good, Siva didn’t let go the pressure on bowling side. Next change was Sriram who also bowled with good pace and length. But with Siva scoring boundaries with whatever meager bowls he faced runrate was never an issue.

8th over Abhay was introduced and he gave Challengers the first sniff of wicket, with the referral of stumping that was very close but ultimately the 3rd umpire video showed the batsman was back in the crease before being stumped. After 8 overs still no wicket down AllStars decided to up the runrate. But Yasar's bowling accuracy paid off. He had Parvath Bowled and then had Piyush and Asfand LBW to get his hatrick. Though one end there were wickets, in the next over Siva decided to up the ante and scored 32 in the 11 over, hitting 4 Sixes and 2 Fours. Yasar came back immediately to pick two very good batsmen, Ashly and Gaurav to complete his fifer, truly dream spell. For AllStars Joined by experienced batsmen Gopi, the duo built a nice partnership to take home team to a big score. If not for Velumani's tight bowling Challengers were looking to chase a score in excess of 200. AllStars ended with 184 for 7. Siva scoring 129 in 49 delivers with 9 fours and 12 sixes. Gopi and Parvath chipped in their share with 18 and 19 respectively. Sriram and Velu had the better bowling economy of below 6 runs per over.

After a short break, Challengers started with the opening pair of Sriram and Yasar. Clearly challengers were looking for an aggressive start, Yasar was bowled out by Chetan's pace attack on the very first delivery he faced. Joined by Abhay the UI duo looked all set. Abhay hit an awesome lofted cover drive boundary before he fell to a ball for Sanath which hurried on to him before he could complete his pull shot. Suraj fell for a very accurate bowling from Bhushan who showed a big improvement in his bowling performance. Searching for more big hits Velu fell victim to Sanath's bowling after hitting a huge six. Then what followed was pure attacking batting. Amer and Raj scored 32 runs in one over to bring back life into Challengers chase. The momentum was clearly with Challengers side. Amer completed his half century with 6 fours and 2 sixes. With almost 8 runs needed off of every over, AllStars brought back their trump bowlers Asfand and Chetan. Both bowled nice line and length but Amer and Raj continued to hit some huge sixes both onside and offside. 35 runs needed of last 4 overs. Gaurav stepped up to pick Amer and Sriram's wickets. Clearly the fatigue had set in and soon enough Raj fell for Bhushan's excellent bowling not before hitting 3 sixes and 3 fours. In the end challengers managed to score 159 Runs after losing 8 wickets. Sanath ended with 3 wickets, Bhushan and Gaurav with 2 wickets each. Asfand was most economical bowler of the match.

Yasar with 5 wickets and Siva with a century were the stand out performances. Siva was awarded the Man of the match for his knock.
Clearly a match that will remain in the memory for a long time with 22 fours 20 sixes being hit along with a bowler picking a hattrick and fifer.

With all these stand out performances Cricket was the ultimate winner of the day.


Links to the highlights of game as captured through the leg umpire camera.
https://youtu.be/g8RG73j-H3k
https://youtu.be/