Main Umpire: P.K Leg Umpire: Nishith
Report:
After a month's break from league cricket, Team NCSU was itching
for some action and unfortunately/fortunately SPCC was their next victim. NCSU
won the toss, and after reviewing at the playing conditions, put SPCC to bat.
The start for NCSU was not a welcome one as the operners for SPCC, Mahesh and
Anish were on the offensive right from ball one of Krishna's over. Vamsee
(debuting his bowling in MACC) came in to bowl the second over and got the same
treatment, but recovered by claiming the wicket of Anish. This wicket got NCSU
back on track and Krishna trapped the new SPCC batsman, Guru, in front of the
wicket with a wonderful delivery. The next batsman Venkat, along with Mahesh
tried to stabilize the SPCC innings, surviving some very close calls, until
Krishna uprooted Mahesh's stumps in the first ball of his 4th over. The first
change in bowling was made by NCSU, with Nihar coming in to replace Vamsee.
Nihar got the wicket of Venkat in his very first over, which would have been his
second in the same over if not for a spill in first slip. Nikhil was brought in
to replace Krishna in the 15th over and he set to task right away with a wicket,
with SPCC at 77/5. He went on to claim 3 more wickets getting one of his best
bowling figures of 4-16 off 6 overs. Nihar and Krishna were brought back after
the 20th over, and Krishna cleaned up the SPCC tail with ease. NCSU were set a
target of 132 to chase in the alloted 30 overs.
NCSU's innings started with a scare when the No.1 and No.3 batsmen were
dismissed within just two overs with the score at 15. Amit and Sushil however,
kept their cool and steered the team to a convincing victory with 12 overs to
spare. Amit hit his first 50 in the league off just 48 balls even after
suffering from cramps due to dehydration in the hot & humid weather, and
remained unbeaten to see the team through. Sushil complimented Amit very well
and went on to make 36 after a cautious start. Vinay made his batting debut in
the league after waiting 2 games for the chance. All-in-all it was a great
victory for NCSU with all departments performing well, and they should look
forward to repeating a similar performance in every game from now. There were
some good performances from Krishnakanth (4-27), Nikhil (4-16), and Sushil (36),
but it was Amit's (53*) time in the crease which took the game away from the
opposition, rightly deserving to be the Man-of-the-Match.
P.K and Nishit did a good job in umpiring and also in controlling both teams
when tempers flared on either side under the hot sun.