Day 3 – Game 1 : First Years vs Second Years
One of the most hard fought games in the tournament so far, the first years had a sloppy start, with the dexterous bowler of the Second Years, Ashwin taking out the two opening batsmen – Captain of the First Years team Libin John and promising players, Sai and Athul who both had hoarded runs in their last match in the first over itself, in which Athul just managed to nick a single spectacular sixer. Gopika who came in to bat next was run out by Avinash, after she had partnered with Arvind, scoring two runs. Arvind, on whom the expectations of his compatriots now lay, went on to score a total of 73 match determining runs in 30 balls, facing Ashwin, Avinash and Sridhar and becoming a mini legend; before he was stumped by a spectacular spin ball by Sridhar. The Susmit – Gokul partnership then scored a lucky 13 runs in 4 balls with Gokul sweeping every single one of Sridhar’s balls to the boundary. Ramya and Hari too, with their bowling had notably conceded very few runs even though they didn’t manage to take any wickets.
The second innings started with a bang, with all-rounder Ashwin scoring an even 29 runs off of 9 balls when he was run out by Susmit. Libin then went ahead with his signature bowling style conceding very few runs to Avinash who could only score 14 runs off his 17 balls before he too was stumped by Susmit. Anathajith followed and could score just 2 runs off of 7 balls in the phenomenal attack Libin put him through. Irene and Athul each bowled two overs and though they did not manage to take wickets they conceded very few runs – 14 and 19 respectively. Melwin was bowled out at 5 runs off 9 balls, once again by the captain, Libin. And Ratnika and Bitthal each scored 1 run. The most notable bowling of the day was by Susmit Panzade who had given just 1 run in his one over taking a wicket too.
The match concluded with the First Years humiliating the Second Years with a healthy margin of 45 runs and making it into the Semifinals as first runners up of group one.
Final Score:
First years- 108/5 in 8 overs.
Second years- 63/4 in 8 overs.
Day 3 – Game 2 : Fourth Years vs Fifth Years
The first innings had a very dramatic start with Dhananjay scoring 11 runs off 12 balls, in his partnership with Avinash before he was run out by Venkatraman with Dilip bowling in style. Avinash scored 13 runs off 10 balls before he was dismissed by the baseball inspired bowling style by Saba that was caught by Dilip in what was quite a brilliant show of talented feilding. Saba went on, being the ‘lucky charm’ of the fourth years, playing 3 overs in which she managed to take 2 wickets conceding a relatively low 27 runs, Rahul having bowled an over in the interim. In fact, Sreedhar was ducked by her brilliant ball and Ankita who scored 15 runs off 16 balls was run out by Remil. Sarath and Anand finished the match off scoring an even 9 runs off 9 balls facing Sannihith.
The second innings was even more dramatic in that, the entire second innings had just Sannihith and Dilip holding their creases, Dilip even exasperatedly sitting in his. Dilip scored 16 runs off 12 balls and Sannihith; 38 off of 17; facing a cocktail of Fifth year bowlers – Anand, Dhananjay, Angitha, Mahesh and Sharath. Both Sannihith and Dilip scored a couple of sixers in the process drawing loud cheers from the excited audience of batsmen who didn’t have to bat.
The game ended with The Fourth years emulating the Freshies in beating their immediate seniors, but by 10 wickets and entering the Semis. In all, it was quite an eventful day of the tournament.
Final Score:
Fifth years- 60/4 in 8 overs.
Fourth years- 64/0 in 5 overs.
Article 19 