Points table and Standings updated:
Match 5
Spartans vs Rajni's 11
Winners: Spartans
Spartans vs Rajni's 11
Winners: Spartans
Synopsis:
What a Helluva match!!! An exciting roller-coaster ride.. Bole to Paisa Vasool...
It was better that no heart patients were present to see the match.
It was better that no heart patients were present to see the match.
This was a very important for both Rajni's and Spartans as they had lost previous matches by a significant margin.
Spartans won the toss and elected to bat. With the inclusion of Rahul Chaoji and Bankim, they went into the game with full strength this time. Rahul was at his best with a perosnal score of 24 that included 4 boundaries. Others played their part as well by rotating the strike and taking the score to 68. The Rajni's also gifted 13 extras to the Spartans to help with the score. The highlight of the batting innings was 3 back to back boundaries off one over by Rahul.
The 2nd Innings: The Spartans opening bowlers started 2nd innings by bowling great line and length and picking 3 quick wickets. That adding immense pressure on the batsman following. The task was left to Rajni's best batsman to finish the job. Santosh a.k.a Tiger woods didn't disappoint and went on to play strokes that he is famous for, hitting two towering sixes and a boundary. He along with Gadkari carried Rajni's innings to a point where the match was swaying both sides. An unusual mix-up cost rahul's run-out and Santosh departed soon after. The Spartans dived into the opportunity and in the end, their bowlers didnt let Rajni's get near the target.
Positive's for Rajni's from this game was their top batsman getting some runs. As far as Spartans go, they almost did everything right, except, they need to improve their fielding. Dropped catches could have cost them the match.
Match 6
Chhatrapati's vs 13 Warriors
Winners: Chhatrapati's
Deciding to bat first, Chhatrapati's knew they had to put a decent total on the board to defend and be in the semi's. 13 warriors took up the challenge and started to make life difficult for the chhatrapati's.
Loosing the openers very quickly, chhatrapati's stalwart Kapil decided to take the attack to the opposition by hitting a boundary to start with and a huge sixer later on. Other batsman didnt do well to support him and failed to rotate the strike. warriors captain Parthiv bowled an impeccable line and length to restrict chhatrapati's captain to get a start and also limit their score to chaseable 58.
The 2nd innings: warriors started in style hitting 8 runs of the 1st over itself. The 2nd over belonged to chhatrapati's as they got the most imp wicket of warriors , their captain Parthiv.Runs didnt come that easy as chhatrapati's bowled a good line and length. Warriors didnt give up as Bharat played an excellent innings to bring them closer to the target. Some rash shots by the Warriors lower order didn't help as the equation became 15 in last 2 overs. Some had to pull a Dhoni or Pravin Kumar type of innings. Viraj bowled a top class last over as Chhatrapati's won the match by 3 runs..
Warriors didnt do much wrong as they bowled really well and batted decently, but only thing missing was shot selection. Chhatrapati's will be proud of the way they bowled and fielded and most importantly the way they held catches.. (Vinit and Jalapendra).
Match 7
Rajni's 11 vs The Blue Indians
Winners: The Blue Indians
Synopsis:
What a match!! A low scoring thriller!! The best bowling performance one will ever see..
The Rajni's had to win this to secure their first win as well as to lift their morale as a team.
Rajni's winning the toss decided to bat first. Clearly not their forte.. With openers who hardly had a chance to bat in earlier matches were suddenly opening the innings. A gamble that didnt pay off. The indian's were bowling really well by not letting the top order to score any runs. Rajni's had scored just 15 off first overs after which something something happened that showed Rajni's captain stars and birds in broad daylight. Rajni's were down 17/5 in 5th over as they lost their three most imp batsman to a hat-trick by Indian's bowler Rajesh. A recovery after that was next match dream as rajn's folded up to a paltry 38 which also included 13 extras. Kudo's to the blue Indians bowlers for doing a nice job and getting the first ever hat-trick for the season.
The 2nd Innings: Set out to chase a low score, the blue's were pretty relaxed. The Rajni's known to be the best bowling team in SPL had a monstrous job in hand. rajni's pounced right into the game picking 2 quick wickets which also had the priced wicket of Indian's captain Akhil. The blue's were able to score 22/3 off 1st 6 overs and need just 17 off last six to win the match. Rajni's weren't letting it go that easily. Somanth bowled beautifully by bowling a maiden over and taking 2 wickets in his next by conceding just one run in his 2 overs. 10 were need off last 2 overs and was a lot difficult given the circumstances and the batsman at the crease. The last over saw the only mistakes the Rajni's did after bowling and fielding so brilliantly during the 11 overs. Sloppy throws and misfielding cost the match to Rajni's and the blue Indians remained unbeaten in the tournament yet.
Match 8
Spartan's vs Chhatrapati's
Winners: Chhatrapati's
Synopsis:
Butter Finger Spartan's!! A perfect example of gifting the match to the opposition when you are in control.
Winning the toss, Spartans elected to bat first, an obvious choice. The opener rahul Chaoji was at his best again by continuously rotating the strike and hitting occasional boundaries. The others did their bit but couldn't capitalize on the start given by Rahul. Inspite of having wickets in hand, Chhatrapati's rounded Spartans up to a score of 60. The 4 overs of power play yielded only 16 runs and also there was no help with the extras. Much more was expected of a team that has a better batting line-up than most of the teams. In the end, a score Chhatrapati's have always seemed comfortable with looking at their past 3 matches.
The 2nd Innings: Spartans opening bowlers began with an impeccable line and length, not allowing the Chhatrapati's batsmen to settle down . They had a score of 19/2 at the end of 6th over. Could have been less runs and more wickets if Spartans hadn't dropped as many as 4 catches which included Chhatrapati's star batsman Kapil. The Chhatrapati's capitalized on the life given to their batsman when kapil hit a huge six to bring themselves back into the game. It was still a catch and go when 2 wickets fell in quick succession and chhatrapati's needed 14 of last 10 balls. Who would anticipate what happened next.. Kapil finished off the game by hitting 2 consecutive sixes and a boundary..
Positive's for Spartans: An inform opening batsman and decent bowling that only gave 6 extra runs.
Need to improve their fielding if want to stay in the tournament.
A Good team effort by Chhatrapati's and a deserving team in the semi's..
With the Blue's and Mahadev's team already securing 1st two spots.. the fight for 3rd and 4th spot is still on, and everything may come down to NRR. Join us this week end for last two matches of preliminary rounds and Semi's..
The 2nd Innings: The Spartans opening bowlers started 2nd innings by bowling great line and length and picking 3 quick wickets. That adding immense pressure on the batsman following. The task was left to Rajni's best batsman to finish the job. Santosh a.k.a Tiger woods didn't disappoint and went on to play strokes that he is famous for, hitting two towering sixes and a boundary. He along with Gadkari carried Rajni's innings to a point where the match was swaying both sides. An unusual mix-up cost rahul's run-out and Santosh departed soon after. The Spartans dived into the opportunity and in the end, their bowlers didnt let Rajni's get near the target.
Positive's for Rajni's from this game was their top batsman getting some runs. As far as Spartans go, they almost did everything right, except, they need to improve their fielding. Dropped catches could have cost them the match.
Match 6
Chhatrapati's vs 13 Warriors
Winners: Chhatrapati's
Synopsis:
Another Thriller!! Deciding to bat first, Chhatrapati's knew they had to put a decent total on the board to defend and be in the semi's. 13 warriors took up the challenge and started to make life difficult for the chhatrapati's.
Loosing the openers very quickly, chhatrapati's stalwart Kapil decided to take the attack to the opposition by hitting a boundary to start with and a huge sixer later on. Other batsman didnt do well to support him and failed to rotate the strike. warriors captain Parthiv bowled an impeccable line and length to restrict chhatrapati's captain to get a start and also limit their score to chaseable 58.
The 2nd innings: warriors started in style hitting 8 runs of the 1st over itself. The 2nd over belonged to chhatrapati's as they got the most imp wicket of warriors , their captain Parthiv.Runs didnt come that easy as chhatrapati's bowled a good line and length. Warriors didnt give up as Bharat played an excellent innings to bring them closer to the target. Some rash shots by the Warriors lower order didn't help as the equation became 15 in last 2 overs. Some had to pull a Dhoni or Pravin Kumar type of innings. Viraj bowled a top class last over as Chhatrapati's won the match by 3 runs..
Warriors didnt do much wrong as they bowled really well and batted decently, but only thing missing was shot selection. Chhatrapati's will be proud of the way they bowled and fielded and most importantly the way they held catches.. (Vinit and Jalapendra).
Match 7
Rajni's 11 vs The Blue Indians
Winners: The Blue Indians
Synopsis:
What a match!! A low scoring thriller!! The best bowling performance one will ever see..
The Rajni's had to win this to secure their first win as well as to lift their morale as a team.
Rajni's winning the toss decided to bat first. Clearly not their forte.. With openers who hardly had a chance to bat in earlier matches were suddenly opening the innings. A gamble that didnt pay off. The indian's were bowling really well by not letting the top order to score any runs. Rajni's had scored just 15 off first overs after which something something happened that showed Rajni's captain stars and birds in broad daylight. Rajni's were down 17/5 in 5th over as they lost their three most imp batsman to a hat-trick by Indian's bowler Rajesh. A recovery after that was next match dream as rajn's folded up to a paltry 38 which also included 13 extras. Kudo's to the blue Indians bowlers for doing a nice job and getting the first ever hat-trick for the season.
The 2nd Innings: Set out to chase a low score, the blue's were pretty relaxed. The Rajni's known to be the best bowling team in SPL had a monstrous job in hand. rajni's pounced right into the game picking 2 quick wickets which also had the priced wicket of Indian's captain Akhil. The blue's were able to score 22/3 off 1st 6 overs and need just 17 off last six to win the match. Rajni's weren't letting it go that easily. Somanth bowled beautifully by bowling a maiden over and taking 2 wickets in his next by conceding just one run in his 2 overs. 10 were need off last 2 overs and was a lot difficult given the circumstances and the batsman at the crease. The last over saw the only mistakes the Rajni's did after bowling and fielding so brilliantly during the 11 overs. Sloppy throws and misfielding cost the match to Rajni's and the blue Indians remained unbeaten in the tournament yet.
Match 8
Spartan's vs Chhatrapati's
Winners: Chhatrapati's
Synopsis:
Butter Finger Spartan's!! A perfect example of gifting the match to the opposition when you are in control.
Winning the toss, Spartans elected to bat first, an obvious choice. The opener rahul Chaoji was at his best again by continuously rotating the strike and hitting occasional boundaries. The others did their bit but couldn't capitalize on the start given by Rahul. Inspite of having wickets in hand, Chhatrapati's rounded Spartans up to a score of 60. The 4 overs of power play yielded only 16 runs and also there was no help with the extras. Much more was expected of a team that has a better batting line-up than most of the teams. In the end, a score Chhatrapati's have always seemed comfortable with looking at their past 3 matches.
The 2nd Innings: Spartans opening bowlers began with an impeccable line and length, not allowing the Chhatrapati's batsmen to settle down . They had a score of 19/2 at the end of 6th over. Could have been less runs and more wickets if Spartans hadn't dropped as many as 4 catches which included Chhatrapati's star batsman Kapil. The Chhatrapati's capitalized on the life given to their batsman when kapil hit a huge six to bring themselves back into the game. It was still a catch and go when 2 wickets fell in quick succession and chhatrapati's needed 14 of last 10 balls. Who would anticipate what happened next.. Kapil finished off the game by hitting 2 consecutive sixes and a boundary..
Positive's for Spartans: An inform opening batsman and decent bowling that only gave 6 extra runs.
Need to improve their fielding if want to stay in the tournament.
A Good team effort by Chhatrapati's and a deserving team in the semi's..
With the Blue's and Mahadev's team already securing 1st two spots.. the fight for 3rd and 4th spot is still on, and everything may come down to NRR. Join us this week end for last two matches of preliminary rounds and Semi's..
Great job GG....
ReplyDeleteThanks Akhil
ReplyDeleteExcellent work GG. You must start writing for sports magazine :)
ReplyDeleteThe way you note down each every detail from the matches is amazing. Great job. Keep it up!