Match Date: 5/31/2014
Ground: Galway Park
Warriors begin their 40 overs campaign at a ground where
they had their only win in this season T20. Electing to field warriors put up a
good bowling display with some good disciplined bowling from the opening
bowlers. Warriors had a breakthrough in the 12th over with Sandeep
Pothuraju getting a wicket. The wicket opened up the flood gates of wickets for
NOVA as Mithun and Venkat ran through the opposition with their spin. Together
both the spinners took 6 wickets as the opposition was not able to play spin.
The game changed in dramatic way from 1 wicket before the break to 8 wickets
falling at the second break. Venkat got rid of the 9th wicket with
his loopy delivery and the final wicket fell to the pace of Murali giving an
simple catch to short covers caught by a diving Sandeep. A special note has to
be mentioned as Suresh N caught two awesome catches at long off of Mithun
bowling. The first catch was a high hit which everyone thought will carry to
fielder but it dipped as it came down and Suresh had to run fast to get a hold
of it. The second catch was much tougher as the ball was not hit properly
towards long off but suresh ran and took the ball just before it landed inches of ground.
The batting part of warriors began chasing an meagre 104
(which included around 30+ wide’s) with Y opening along with saurabh. Y taking
the strike took an single to give the strike to saurabh. Saurabh blocked one
ball and was bowled the next ball while tryin to hit across a straight ball.
One down was Niaz who was bowled next ball. So in first over warriors lost 2
wickets for one run. Next in Srini who was looking in good nick as he placed a
offside ball beautifully between and fielders and got 2 runs for that. Srini
tried to hit a short of length ball through leg side and got a toe end of bat
hit the ball resulting in an easy catch at short mid-on. Sandeep and Y
continued the chase sensibly by taking singles whenever they had a bad ball.
Sandeep perished while trying to defend the off spin(for righty) which beat his
bat and tuk the off stump along with it. Venkat came to the crease and
continued with singles. Y tried to hit a short bad ball down the leg and got a
top edge to square leg. Harsha and Venkat continued to play cautiously as they
begin to build a partnership. Harsha spanked a four and venkat hit a Six thru
deep mid-wicket in the same over to get the first four and six of warrior’s
innings. Harsha perished trying to play a soft nudge to leg side as the ball
took an top edge. Next in Murali was plumb for the off spinner giving the
momentum back to NOVA. Mithun walked in facing the hat trick ball and got away
with an unusual bouncy delivery on a slow low pitch. Venkat was bowled by a quicker one from the off
spinner who bowled it on off stump. Next in Suresh Neelapala tried to shake the
bowler line length my moving across crease and managed to get a single and next
ball a double but their strike bowler had other ideas as he bowled well outside
off which anna tried to hit but got a tame edge to slip. The last wicket of
Bhanu and Mithun had to hit around 36 runs from almost 22 overs. After their
strike bowler finished his spell with a 5 wicket haul Bhanu managed to hit one
of their spinners for a six and four over the covers which brought a lot of
relief. Bhanu and Mithun continued to bat sensibly by taking singles and block
the good balls. At this point warriors required close to 20 runs in around 16
overs. Bhanu hit a off side ball over the point fielder and ran for two but
there was direct hit on the second run on which bhanu was run out ending the
game for warriors.
Note: All stats are not exactly accurate
