Match Report: First T20 against CUCC

Post date: Apr 06, 2016 1:47:42 PM

A midst forecast of bad weather in the triad, FUCC’s CCL T20 season kicked off with a game against CUCC. It was cloudy and with rain forecast, CUCC’s captain decided to bowl first. FUCC opened with their regular openers Rajan Thakur & Amit Tayade.  Walton Charles started the preceding’s for CUCC. He reminded us of the famous West Indies fast bowlers and boy he bowled with serious pace and bounce.  He tested both Raj & Amit with fast swinging deliveries. Zeeshan shared the new ball with Walton and the very first ball was a quick bouncer to Amit. The next ball was slightly wide and Amit played a fierce full cut shot for a four. He looked in good touch when drove for another boundary towards extra cover. He was riding high on confidence but was undone by a slower ball and was caught at mid-off by Awais Khan off Zeeshan. FUCC were 16 for the loss 1 wicket at the end of 2 overs. Rahul walked in at the fall of Amit’s wicket.  Raj struck Walton in the 3rd over for a humungous six towards long off and Rahul too looked in good touch when flicked for a couple of twos and a boundary in Zesshan’s 2nd over. The score at the end of the 4th over was 35 for 1. Awais Khan was introduced in the 5th over and he conceded 9 runs. FUCC was cruising at 44 for 1 at the end of the 5th over.  Rahul was out in the 1st ball of the 6th over, courtesy to a fantastic running catch by Zeeshan off Shibraz’s bowling.  This brought the most experienced Sunny Kriplani to the crease.  Sunny assumed the role of rotating strike whereas Raj took matters in his own hands and attacked the bowlers. Raj struck 5 boundaries in the next 4 overs. This pair ran aggressively, rotated the strike and dispatched the bad bowls towards boundary. Sunny K hit his 1stboundary in the 11th over with his trademark flick towards fine leg.  In the same over Raj reached his fifty in just 30 balls when struck Naqash for powerful lofted shot for four over extra cover.  Prior to this game, Raj hardly had any batting practice and then amazed everyone with a sensational innings.  The guy is a pure genius and FUCC‘s backbone. At this point, FUCC’s innings was in top gear mode racing at 96 for 2 at the end of 11 overs. Khurram brought himself to bowl and Sunny K greeted him with back to back boundaries towards fine leg. Players in the pavilion and a few others watching the game were overjoyed to see his stylish batting. He struck another boundary towards backward square leg and pocketed 14 runs from 5 balls.  Unfortunately he tried to play his favorite flick shot but was cleaned up by Khurram.  At this stage, FUCC were in the driver’s seat with the scoreboard reading as 110 for 3 in 12 overs.  Navanith joined Raj in the middle and the pair continued running hard between the wickets.  Raj struck another monstrous six over deep mid-wicket in the 13th over bowled by Walton. CUCC’s body language was dropping as FUCC looked well set to post a 1st innings total off 200 runs. Raj was cleaned by Zeeshan in the 14th over but not before a match defining 72 runs off 43 balls with 9 fours and 2 huge sixes. Raj’s wicket pumped fresh oxygen into CUCC and they started fighting back through very good death bowling & fielding. Navanith & Sunny E tried running hard and kept the scoreboard ticking but were dismissed in the 18th over by Shibraz in consecutive deliveries.  Teji also perished in an effort to up the scoring and was dismissed in the 19th over by Naqash.  Prashant and Harissh ran hard and scored crucial runs towards the flag end of the innings. FUCC’s ship was stalled at 175 by CUUC’s good bowling and FUCC’s average batting at the end of the innings. Overall a good score for Weston Park.

With the target of 176, CUCC opened with Awais Khan and Naqash Choudhery whereas FUCC’s strike bowler Sukesh bowled the 1st over.  CUCC players were high on confidence after restricting FUCC for 175. The intent from CUCC’s openers was very evident and they started aggressively. Awais took great advantage of Sukesh’s swinging deliveries and smashed 21 runs in the 1st over. Vinod shared the new ball with Sukesh and conceded 11 runs. Sukesh came back strong and bowled 2 beautiful overs and almost had Awais caught at silly mid-off. He conceded only 4 runs in the next 2 overs considering the fact that power play was still on. Runs continued to leak from the other end and at the end of the 5th over CUCC had reached to 47 for no loss.  Prashant, the fastest of FUCC bowlers was introduced to give a breakthrough but was unable to do so. The score read 61 runs for no loss at the end of 6th over. The man with the golden arm, Sunny K was introduced and he almost gave FUCC their first breakthrough but a drop catch by Navanith gave the batsman a new lease of life.  Harissh & Navanith bowled the 8th and 9th over but couldn’t put breaks on CUCC‘s innings. Harissh almost had Naqash in the 10th over but a dropped catch meant that FUCC were still looking for the 1st breakthrough.  Awais Khan reached a well-deserved fifty in the 10th over. Navanith bowled the 11th over and got rid of Awais courtesy to a good catch by Vinod at long off. Awais made a game changing 59 runs off 29 balls smashing 7 fours and 3 sixes. At 114 for 1 at the end of 11 overs, FUCC bowlers needed to bowl their skin out if they had to win the game.  Navanith struck twice in the 13th over dismissing Waqas Bhatti and Zesshan Rashid with the scoreboard reading 128 for 3. Rahul’s leg spinners were introduced in the 14th over and he struck by getting Khurram leg before.  Wickets were stumbling but CUCC were still sitting comfortable as Naqash was still at the crease, runs were flowing easily and required run rate was down to 6 an over. Naqash went to score a brilliant 50 courtesy a few more dropped catches.  He was finally dismissed in the 17th over by Vinod and brilliantly caught by Sukesh.  CUCC needed 20 runs off 21 balls, Shibraz & Walton made sure that they reached the target with no further damage thus handed FUCC a loss in their 1st game.

Positives:-

Great batting by Raj

Good support by Sunny K

Good aggressive running  by Amit, Raj, Rahul, Sunny K, Sunny E, Prashant & Harissh

Good ground fielding by Amit,Teji & Sukesh

Area for improvement:-

Middle and lower order need to raise their batting. Need to learn to finish strong.

Bowlers need to bowl to a line/length and field plan.

Ground fielding needs to get more aggressive.

Catching was terrible and needs a lot of improvement.

Motivating teams and talking is an important aspect. Body language should not drop when the situation becomes unfavorable.

Cheers,

Navanith