Result: Brussels Warriors-2 – Won by 174 runs
Location: Wemmel
Date: 24th July 2021
Author: Bharat Ram Ammu
Scorecard: https://www.crichq.com/matches/939520/1st_innings
Chevaliers were keen to get a win after 2 consecutive defeats both batting 2nd. However, batting in the previous games wasn’t that bad, getting 170+ in both the games earlier. JD initiated a discussion whether Chevaliers should bat first instead , winning the toss. Brussels Warriors won the toss and chose to bat, leaving JD no confusion.
Warriors were struck early from an out-swinger coming in from out from JD, with an LBW to Sultan. Sajid also perished to Vishal, Nirmal taking a good catch. However, Zia and Samiurahman had lot of intent to take singles with right-left combo adding to the frustration of Chevaliers’ bowlers and fielders. Vishal came back and broke the partnership with his attacking field hit-me strategy.
Devang made his debut for Chevaliers, and started brilliantly, giving nothing away to the batsmen. However, Zia from Warriors kept it going, finally removed by JD for 96! Devang finally took his 1st wicket for Chevaliers with a good high catch from Nikhil, breaking a well-set Rafi for 20 as well. Nirmal bowled his 1st over for Chevaliers and stuck twice, making Warriors 198-7. Devang picked his 2nd wicket, with a deceiving flight to stump Farid by Bala for a duck. However, Abdul kept going for Warriors. Rajesh came back for 2nd spell to bowled Rakatullah, quickly was followed by Vishal to pick Abdul, after taking them to 261.
12 stars then came to bat, to face the deadly combo of Khalid and Abdul. Khalid was swinging in with express pace and Abdul on the other hand kept swinging out, keeping the line and batsmen on their toes.
Siva was the batsman to show some resilence before perishing for 4, taking Chevaliers to 23-7. Rajesh and Devang had a little parternship to take us to 50, before Devang was stuck LBW to Rakatullah for 5. But Rajesh showed some intent to score 32 before perishing to Zia, along with JD who scored 13 too, taking the final score to 87.
Chevaliers lost the match, won the hearts of Warriors for the appreciation of the incredible talent that they displayed with a young team. It was a great learning experience for batsmen to face such quality bowling!
