AZTwenty20 becomes interesting as teams inch towards Quarter FinalsAuthor : Anand Kumar
Interesting weekend ahead: This weekend, Oceans Blue, Valley Eagles and Arizona Friends would fight to win their respective matches in order to seal the two vacant spots for the quarter finals from the BLUE group, while Spartans, Nawaabs and ACC would try to secure the only place vacant in the RED Group. If valley Eagles and Oceans Blue win against KINGS and SUNS respectively, they would be through to the quarters based on their run rate unless Arizona Friends beat Veerans by a huge margin. Spartans on the other hand have an edge in the RED Group because of their high run rate, however if they lose to Cavaliers and ACC beats Metro Stars, Spartans will still be out. If Spartans beat Cavaliers, they will seal the 4th spot without any hiccups. On the other hand, if ACC and Spartans both
lose their respective games comprehensively and Nawaabs beat TCC by a huge margin, they can also qualify for the quarters. All in all, a very interesting week is ahead as we move into Quarter Round following week.
Game 1: KINGS Vs Metro Suns @ Washington (E):
This game lived up to its reputation as it witnessed a tough battle between two top teams of the BLUE group. Kings won the toss and invited SUNS to bat first. Krishnan Rajgopalan (25) from Metro Suns attacked the KINGS bowlers from the word go even though the other batsmen, Prabhat (0), Yatin (1), struggled against the pace and Swing of Maheshwar as he sent first three batsmen of Suns to the pavilion including Krishnan after some fireworks. Vivek (5) tried to hold the Suns innings together, but fell trap to Moiz as we wanted to pull him. The captain Abhi and Naveed then came to the rescue act as Karan from KINGS applied pressure from one end. Abhi and Naveed scored 31 runs of the three overs from 9-11 and threatened to take SUNS to a bigger total, but KINGS captain Anand himself put on the attack and removed 4 of the batsmen from Suns. Even though Abhi put up a brave fight and scored 43 runs, without much support from the other end, Suns could only reach to 94 in the 19th overs. Anand (4/19) and Maheshwar (3/8) along
with Karan (0/2) were instrumental in restricting Suns to a below 100 total.
Chasing 95 in 20 overs under lights was never going to be an easy task given the four prong pace attack comprising of Ravi, Santosh, Abhi and Naveed that SUNs have. Santosh made the chase tougher by cleaning the most consistent batsman for Kings, Praveen, in the very second ball of the first over. When Gopi also followed pavilion and SUNs came back hard removing as many as 4 KINGS batsmen for ducks, it looked like SUNs are in the mood to finish the game early on. However a cool and composed inning by KINGS captain Anand (48 off 66, 1x4, 2x6) and an excellent support from the most dependable KINGS batsman, Karan Wittke (22* off 25, 2x4) saw KINGS home in the 20th over. Captain Abhi (11/1) and Naveed (15/2) were the most accurate bowlers for SUNS.
Brief Scores:
Result: Kings won by 2 wickets.
Game 2: Metro Stars Vs Tucson Cricket Club@ Washington Park (E):
Winning the toss Metro Stars decided to bat and even though the openers Rajendra (12) and Prashant (4) were cheaply out, Sanjay Rao (26, 4x4) and Metro Stars best batsman, Rajan Kale (60, 2x4, 8x6) played aggressively and were instrumental in taking Metro Stars to 155/9 in 20 overs.
Chasing 156 under lights, Captain Abid (63 off 54, 5x4, 6x6) rose to the occasion and put up a brave fight along with Parijat Jain (25 off 29, 1x4, 1x6). However, it was always going to be tough without much of a support from any other end and TCC fell short by just 14 runs at the end.
Brief Scores:
Toss: Metro Stars won the toss and elected to BAT first.
Result: Metros won by 14 runs.
Game 3: Phoenix Cricket Club Vs Kingfishers Nawaabs@ Washington Park (E):
Nawaabs won the toss and asked PCC to bat first. With useful contributions from Rehan (16 off 14, 1x4, 1x4), Senthil (19 off 35), Niranjan Dravid (17 off 24, 2x4), Varun (18 off 13, 2x4, 1x6), Ankit (17 off 16, 2x4) and Greg (12 off 14, 1x6), PCC posted a fighting total of 126/6 in 20 overs.
Chasing the target, Once Hitesh Patel, removed the openers Raghu and Vinod Swarna cheaply, a fighting innings from Jags (23 off 41, 2x4) and Sanjay Patel (24 off 22, 3x1, 1x6) provided some hope, but once they fail to the pressure of ever increasing asking run rate, it was always going to be tough and Nawaabs soon folded for 86.
Brief Scores:
Result: PCC won by 40 runs.
Game 4: Arizona Friends Vs Metro Champs@ Washington Park (W):
Metro Champs won the toss and elected to bat first. Despite a top order collapse they posted a respectable total of 86 in 20 overs.
Arizona Friends made the chasing tougher as they lost 6 of their wickets, however valuable knocks from Tohid (12 off 14, 3x4), Abul (23 off 31, 1x4, 2x6) and Kamran (13 off 7, 1x4, 1x6) took them home at the end. Digambar Singh once again was Champs best bowler as he claimed 4/20.
Brief Scores:
Result: Arizona Friends won by 4 wickets.
Beating Metro Suns, KINGS now becomes the number 1 in the BLUE GROUP followed by Metro Suns, Oceans Blue and Valley eagles. Veerans and Metro Champs are out of contention for Quarters. Phoenix Cricket club tops the RED GROUP followed by Cavaliers and Metro Stars. Tucson Cricket Club is out of the quarter contention. Click here to see the points table.