In spite of heavy rain playing spoil sport, the second week of the AZTwenty20 Summer Cricket Tournamentsaw some close fought games as well as a few one sided ones. Cavaliers, Metro Suns and Oceans blue showed no mercy on Tucson Cricket Club, Metro Champs and Veerans respectively while Nawaabs and Metro Stars had to fight hard to earn their first win against Spartans and Phoenix Cricket club respectively. Because of the incessant rain, the KINGS Vs Arizona Friends game was decided by a bowl out for the first time in the history of Arizona Cricket

Game 1: Kingfishers Nawaabs Vs Spartans @ Washington Park (W):
Both teams playing their first game of the tournament were eager to win. The game was interrupted after the first over as the idea of having a mat over an unrolled grassy pitch proved to be a fatal one. The match was then played on the green lush grassy wicket. Nawaabs won the toss and seeing the nature of the wicket decided to bowl first. Spartans did well for the first 8 overs when they cruised along to a breezy start (51/2), thanks to a 22 ball 25 by their best batsman Mahendran. Once he was foxed by Sanjay from Nawaabs and quickly stumped by Piyush, it was a miserable collapse. Sanjay and Jags both picked up 3 and 4 wickets respectively without giving many runs and ensuring that Spartans was all out for 89.
Chasing a tricky total of 90, Nawaabs were not off to a perfect start as they lost their first 4 wickets rather cheaply and once were tottering to 16/4 in 6 overs. However Nawaab's Piyush then consolidated the innings with middle order batsman Sulabh Shukla as they added 21 runs for the 5th wicket. Once Balaji removed Piyush and brought Spartans back into the game, it was all up to Sanjay, last years' player of the tournament, to guide Nawaabs home. He added another 30 runs with Sulabh and made sure that he saw the team home despite a few hiccups towards the end.

Brief Scores:

Toss: Nawaabs won the toss and elected to field first.
Spartans - 89 all out in 17.1 overs
Nawaabs - 92/8 in 17.5 overs
Detailed Scorecard: Click here to view.
Result: Nawaabs won by 2 wickets.

Game 2: Metro Suns Vs Metro Champs @ Washington Park (E):
Both teams from the same club, falling in the same BLUE group, played their first game against each other and at the end turned out to be a rather one sided game wherein SUNs registered a massive win over their CHAMPS brothers by a huge margin of 118 runs. A well compiled 50 from Sanjit Tayi and a belligerent 41 from Naveed helped Suns post a huge total of 156/8 in 20 overs. Digamber was the best bowler for Champs claiming 3/18 in 4 overs. The inexperienced Champs failed to the pressure of such a big total as they collapsed to a meager 38 with none of their batsman reaching the double figure.

Brief Scores:

Toss: Champs won the toss and elected to field first.
Metro Suns - 156/8 in 20 overs
Metro Champs- 38 all out in 15 overs
Detailed Scorecard: Click here to view.
Result: Metro Suns win by 118 runs.

Game 3: Cavaliers Vs Tucson Cricket Club @ Chandler Cricket Ground:
Batting first, Cavaliers scored a massive 200/5 in 20 overs. Dhanajay (29, 5x4, 1x6), Chandra (41, 5x4, 3x6), Ketan (44, 6x4, 1x6) and Mitesh (28, 1x4, 3x6) made most of the below par bowling attack of TCC. Rajan was their best bowler with a figure of 1/15 in three overs. However Tucson Cricket club chased the target well but perhaps were not good enough to surpass the massive total of 200 runs posted by cavaliers. Shafin and Sayeed scored 27 and 22 respectively for TCC as Bhaskar from Cavaliers claimed 4/27 in 4 overs.

Brief Scores:

Toss: Cavaliers won the toss and elected to BAT first.
Cavaliers - 200/5 in 20 overs
Tucson Cricket Club - 155 all out in 17 overs
Detailed Scorecard: Click here to view.
Result: Cavaliers won by 45 runs.

Game 4: Veerans Vs Oceans Blue @ Washington Park (E):
The game was reduced to 18-overs because of a late start on account of evening showers all over Phoenix. Veerans won the toss and put Oceans to bat expecting to use the dampness on the ground. This trick however didn't work as the champion batsman Siddarth Dutta (40), SAI (17) and Pankaj (38) from Oceans took their team to a rollicking start getting 82/2 in 12 overs. However Veerans came back strongly and reduced oceans to 128/8 in 18 overs. Praveen Gorthy claimed 4/20 in 3 overs for Veerans.

Chasing the total, Veeran's top and middle order failed completely, partially because they could not get a start needed and partially because the pitch by that time had deteriorated further. Pareen Patel and Deepak Kamalanathan put some fight towards the end but by that time it was too late to recover. Brief Scores:

Toss: Veerans won the toss and elected to field first.
Oceans Blue - 128/8 in 18 overs
Veerans - 81 all out
Detailed Scorecard: Click hereto view.
Result: Oceans Blue won by 47 runs.

Game 5: Metro stars Vs Phoenix Cricket Club @ Chandler Cricket Ground:
Batting first, Metro Stars breezed along to a good start thanks to Raj (30 off 23 balls) and Prasanth (13 off 11 balls) and they were 30 in 3.2 overs indicating a massive total on the card but once both were out in quick succession, a middle order collapse restricted their effort. Thanks to some belligerent hitting by Bhargav (25 off 18 balls) towards the end, they posted a good total of 133/9 in 20 overs. Rehan Kazmi was PCC's best bowler as he claimed 3/15 in 4 overs.

Phoenix Cricket club didn't start well as they lost their openers rather cheaply. Niranjan (33 off 29 balls) and Amit (14 off 21 balls) provided some consolidation work in the middle and a fighting 22 off 29 balls from Rehan didn't prove enough as PCC lost their last 4 wickets for a meager 7 runs. Venkat was best bowler for Metro stars claiming 4 wickets for just 5 runs.

Brief Scores:

Toss: PCC won the toss and elected to field first.
Metro Stars - 133/9 in 20 overs
Phoenix Cricket Club - 115 all out in 19.4 overs
Detailed Scorecard: Click here to view.
Result: Metro Stars won by 18 runs.

Game 6: KINGS Vs Arizona Friends @ Chandler Cricket Ground Sunday evening rain ensured that there was no game possible at chandler-2 ground between KINGS and AZF. With large patches of water here and there and the ground muddier, the umpires decided to wait until 7:30 PM to declare that the match was not possible. As per the summer rules, the BOWL OUT was to decide the fate of a rained out game. For the first time in the history of Arizona Cricket a bow lout decided the fate of a cricket match wherein AZF beat KINGS by a score of 1-0. In no time, the fate of the game was decided without playing any traditional cricket.

Brief Scores:

Toss: KINGS won the toss and elected to bowl first.
KINGS- 0/5
Arizona Friends - 1/5
Detailed Scorecard: Click hereto view.
Result: Arizona Friends defeated KINGS by 1-0 in bowl out.

After the second week's game, Ocean's blue tops the BLUE GROUP followed by Metro Suns and Arizona Friends while Cavaliers tops the RED GROUP followed by Metro Suns and Kingfishers Nawaabs. Please Click Here to see the points table.