Match Report for 1st T20 game vs CCCC by Navanith Shetty

Post date: Mar 29, 2017 7:22:23 PM

FUCC’s CCL T20 season kicked off amidst cold weather and snow forecast. It was freezing in the morning but the sun god decided to show up and shed some sunlight and kept the winds away. FUCC was playing theT35 champions Charlotte City Cricket Club (CCCC). at Weston Park.  Three extremely talented all-rounders’ Mark Peacock, Shiv Kumar and Yashasvi Kotagiri joined FUCC in their attempt to conquer CCCC.

CCCC captain won the toss and invited FUCC to bat first. The pride of FUCC Raj Thakur and the ever dependable Amit Tayade opened the batting whereas Tanuj and Nitish did the bowling honors for CCCC. Raj continued from where he left last season, attacking the loose deliveries and respecting the good ones. On the other hand, Amit played a perfect second fiddle to Raj by rotating the strike and running hard between the wickets. Raj struck a couple of hefty blows and FUCC gained momentum and reached 50 in no time. Against the run of play, Amit was brilliantly caught at covers when FUCC’s total was 52. Yash joined Raj in the middle and carried on from where Amit had left. Raj continued playing his shots and soon reached his fifty. Yash started piercing gaps for ones & twos and Raj stepped on the accelerator by striking boundaries and sixes at will. FUCC started scoring around 10 runs an over and reached 100 runs in the 10th over. In the next over Raj was dismissed with the team score at 106. Raj alone scored 81 runs in 48 runs striking 12 fours and 3 towering sixes. This man is indeed a run scoring machine and keeps pounding the opponents. Rahul joined Yash and the two ran to keep the momentum going but fell within 6 runs of each other. At this stage FUCC were 131 for 4 at the end of the 15th over. Fireworks were expected with Mark and Navanith in the middle but accurate bowling from CCCC meant that the pair had to run hard to keep the scoreboard ticking. They both hit the odd boundary but mainly relied on converting ones into twos and twos into threes. The pair quickly added 43 runs before Navanith was run out in the last over. Mark too was run out of the last ball of the innings and FUCC finished at 176 for the loss of 5 wickets. A good score but they could have scored another 20 to 25 runs especially with the kind of start they got.

FUCC was keen on testing its bowling attack which consisted of some very good fast bowlers and spinners. Sukesh and Harris Khan shared the new ball and were attacking the CCCC openers from ball one. Sukesh drew first blood by dismissing CCCC’s opener courtesy of a good stumping by Raj Thakur. Harris Khan on the other bowled with sheer pace and had the batsmen running for cover. He did not give an inch to the batsmen. Stephen and his partner were struggling against the right & left hand combination and were unable to make use of the field restrictions. After 5 overs CCCC were 20 runs for 1. Shiv, another left arm fast bowler was introduced and continued from where Harris had left. CCCC were 26 for 1 at the end of the power play. Mark was introduced in 7thover and went for runs. CCCC needed this impetus and were scoring around run a ball. Stephen was looking set for a big innings but was cleaned up in the 9th over by Navanith. Harris Khan was reintroduced in the 10th over and delivered a double blow to CCCC. He picked up 2 wickets and CCCC were struggling at 58 for 4 at the end of the 10th over. Nitish and Prajeeth started rebuilding the innings. The introduction of Harissh resulted in the downfall of Prajeeth who was brilliantly caught by Shiv at long on boundary. The very next ball Harissh cleaned up Nitish and CCCC’s innings was crumbling at 86 for 6. In an attempt to end CCCC’s innings, Mark was reintroduced and bowled yorkers to claim his maiden wicket for FUCC. A few dropped catches prolonged CCCC’s inning. Harissh and Navanith further dented CCCC’s innings but somehow the last pair played out 20 overs and CCCC finished at 127 for the loss of 9 wickets. FUCC registered their 1st win of the season by 49 runs.

Key points

• • Batsmen played in partnerships, we had two 50 runs (Raj & Amit, Raj & Yash) and one 40+ (Mark & Navanith) run partnership

  • Bowlers bowled well in partnership, Sukesh & Harris Khan, Shiv & Harissh, Navanith & Harris

  • Good ground fielding and catching. Shiv, Mark, Yash, Amit and Sukesh were exceptional

  • Catching still needs a lot of improvement, need to tighten screws on ground fielding and avoid misfields and overthrows

Overall, a great start to season and we need to keep this momentum going.

Cheers,

Navanith