Winning by 7 wickets with 5 overs to spare: By far the worst they can do!
By: Anshul Gupta | 12 Stars CC | 27 April, 2016
After a perfect start of the T20 tournament with a win against MCCB the week before, 12 stars Cricket Club locked horns with a newly revived Greens Cricket Club at their home ground in Fermé de Bilande. Spring may have eluded them at the season’s outbreak but not victory. 12 Stars went on to conquer Greens, thanks to some stable performances at the top of the batting order. Ganesh went on to score a match winning 43*, and a well-made 22 from Amit, helped 12 Stars reach the target within 15 overs. Earlier, Bhushan and Ayyappan, with their accurate bowling, played a pivotal role in restricting Greens to a modest total of 111 in 20 overs.
The hosts entered the contest with very high confidence. This is partly by the virtue of a perfect track record of 2 wins in 2 matches in friendly encounters against Greens, and partly because of their excellent team combination of experienced and young players. While Shreyans made his T20 debut for 12 Stars, Ramesh made a comeback in absence of Rohan.
Twist in the tale
The home captain won the toss and elected to field first in cold and overcast conditions. Greens started exceptionally slow against the pace attack of Ramesh, Aniruddha and Amit. With 2 healthy strikes from Aniruddha and a wicket for Amit, Greens put up just 25 runs in the first 8 overs. Then came the spin trio of Manoj and company who hold special powers to change the course of a game, this time to the dislike of the home team. Courtesy, a couple of drop chances including the one from Anshul in the deep, a feeble looking Greens batting, led by top scorer, Prashant, showed signs of rejuvenation. Their eyes brightened as they pounced on anything short and outside leg stump. No bad ball was spared. Nauman was the most economical of the three spinners, going for almost 6 runs an over. The spin attack was tested as Greens added another 60 odd runs without any loss within the next 6 overs.
But there is another twist in the tale. Good teams are good as long as they can come back from the worst of situations. Perhaps, now was the moment for someone to stand up to the challenge. Ayyappan was brought into the attack while Bhushan followed from the other end. The pace duo curbed the run rate with immense authority giving away just 4 runs per over in the death. Making apt use of the conditions with the ball swinging and nipping off the pitch, Ayyappan knocked over the stumps twice while Bhushan’s economy of 3.5 runs in 2 overs was the best out of the lot.
Drama-less second half
Ganesh and Rahul opened the innings for 12 Stars. Rahul got out in the third over of the innings, and Amit came in at number three. A useful second wicket stand of 45 odd runs with both batsmen contributing equally to the score, kept 12 Stars edging closer to the target. Amit played steadily, scoring 3 boundaries in his score of 22. Bhushan came next and made a quick-fire 18 including 2 huge sixes on the leg side. All this while, Ganesh labored his way through a match-winning 43* by the virtue of some good running between wickets and finished off unbeaten with Aniruddha at the other end.
All in all, the victory against Greens was an extremely good team effort from 12 Stars. Greens CC must also be acknowledged for their decent performance especially with the bat, given that they have put together a completely new side this season. They are playing well as a unit and improving from one game to the next.
