MUCC vs Aguilas - Clash between the Defending Champions and the Runnerīs up |
|
|
10/30/2017POSTED BY Rama Krishna Inampudi |
|
 |
|
It was another cool Sunday afternoon at the Reforma Athletic Club which saw the clash between the reigning champions Mexico Union Cricket Club (MUCC) and last season´s runners up Aguilas, the game which became an opportunistic stage for 5 debutants to the league. MUCC won the toss and stuck to their habit of electing to bat first. To begin the proceedings, the debutant all-rounder Aravindan Elangovan provided a brilliant start to Aguilas by claiming his first league wicket with the valuable scalp of Tarun Sharma and finished the over with a maiden wicket. Just when things started to seem steady for MUCC, Shahzad Muhammad, with his wily bowling provided three quick wickets in two subsequent overs without conceding a single run. The first to go was the left-handed all-rounder Matt Noble offering a simple catch to the square leg fielder Sikander Qasim. Then followed the suite were Ben Hunt and the MUCC Captain Revanakumar Ankad, both were caught by the Aguilas Captain Shantanu Kaveri at mid-wicket. At this stage, with MUCC looking at an unpleasant 15 for 4 at the end of 6 overs, Kaushal Ajuha gave some respite from the other end with six hits to the boundary. Ajuha along with Surendra Babu shared a decent partnership of 26 runs for the 5th wicket, before Babu offered a simple dolly to Adnan Haider at extra cover off the bowling of another debutant Santhosh Kumar. Aguilas found a reliable bowling option in Santhosh Kumar who took two more wickets including the dangerous Ahuja (highest scorer of the match with 28 runs) and the strong hitter Muhammad Sajjad, who tried to go for a big hit and was caught off a leading edge at the backword point by Modood Khan. Then the lower order batsmen, debutant Aswin Sathya and Rohit Poojary, demonstrated their batting skills by nudging 1s and 2s to move the scoreboard ahead before Captain Kaveri scalped the first of his 3 wickets in the form of Aswin, who was taken by a running effort from another debutant Abhijeet Srivastava in the mid-wicket region. With the second highest score for MUCC being the 17 extras that were lavishly given away by the Aguilas bowlers, they closed their innings with 80 runs and 2 balls short of playing their full quota of 20 overs. Following up his good start with bowling, Aravindan took the initiative with an elegant and bullet-like cover drive to the boundary off the first ball of the innings from Muhammad Sajjad, not the start that MUCC had hoped for. Aravindan along with the fellow opener Modood Khan quickly added 22 runs in the first 2 overs to the Aguilas scoreboard, before Modood fell to an absolutely stunning acrobatic catch from the MUCC Captain Revanakumar at short mid-off, the kind of effort that can raise any team´s spirit. Matt Noble from the other end bowled a fiery spell and knocked the timber twice to send back to the pavillon Aravindan, Santhosh and the dependable Shahzad who was caught by Revan at long on. Aguilas were 38/5 from 7.1 overs, not so good looking score but comfortable. Even though they lost quick wickets, the batting second team never looked out of the game with the start they got from their openers. But some tidy bowling from the debutant leg spinner Aswin, Captain Revanakumar and Rohit made things interesting enough. Aswin cleaned up Sikander who tried to cut a good length delivery on the middle and off stump. The score was moving at a snail’s pace when Rohit scalped the wicket of Abhijeet to finish the 15th over of the innings with a maiden. The chasing team were 62/6 at the end of 15 overs. With target well within the reach, Aguilas reached home by the end of 18th over without losing any more wickets, courtesy of some rocket-like running between the wickets from the well-known batsmen Captain Kaveri and Adnan. It has to be mentioned that Man of the match Shantanu Kaveri had a field-day in all three areas of the game. He scored an enjoyable 24 runs of 35 balls with two hits to the boundary besides claiming 3 wickets and taking 2 important catches. Aguilas have done themselves a favor of winning their opening game by taking all the chances that came their way. Some tight fielding and few dropped chances taken would have probably made a big difference when it comes to MUCC. Both teams had very good things to take home from the game, with all the debutants performing very well for both the sides. Is it a mere coincidence that the results from the last season´s opening games are repeated? Well, let´s wait and watch. The race has just started. - by Rama Krishna Inampudi (Photo feature: Aguilas Captain Shantanu Kaveri(left) and MUCC Captain Revanakumar Ankad shaking hands during the after-game talk) |
|
| You can also enter comments by CricClubs Login | ||
|
||
