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| Speedsters Slowed Down And The Eagle Has Landed |
Tahir Ali
08/27/2014
NECA Eliminator Round: Worcester Speedster vs MCC1 and Shaheen XI vs SCC
[NECA_2008] Group A: Eliminator 2: Worcester Speedsters @ MCC-1 (On Saturday16-Aug-2014) - Framingham
â€[NECA_2008] Group B:Eliminator 4: Shaheen XI @SCC (On Sunday 17-Aug-2014 †- Shrewsbury
Framingham - 8/16/2014: I tossed the quarter up in the air, but this time not as a player but as the designated neutral umpire. Sai, the Worcester Speedster captain called heads, President Washington’s silvery face showed up, but Sai wanted to field first – not sure if that went well with good old George. As Sandeep and I put the bails on the wickets, the fielders and the opening batsmen (Ashish and Nachiket) soon followed. Ashish stayed long enough to score 6 runs before getting caught by Balaj on Rohit’s delivery. Then fell Rahul, Amol, until Priyank held his pitch. Nachiket remained steadfast, playing all deliveries by the book and sending bad deliveries to where they belonged, across the boundary. Then he was caught by the keeper Aditya off the bowler Sohail Khan who only gave away 19 runs in 4 overs. This was the expensive wicket 31 runs to Nachiket’s credit, the highest scorer of the match. Fine bowling by left armed Sai, sent 5 batsmen back to the pavilion, including Priyank who scored 15 runs. Umesh fielded rather effectively as he caught three catches single handed. The keeper Aditya also bagged 3 catches.
The Worcester Speedster target of 92 runs appeared to be attainable, but between Rahul (4 wickets) and Nishant (3 wickets) it was appearing to be getting difficult as time marched on. Both Aditya (18 not out) and Umesh (16 runs) tried their best to hold their wickets, unfortunately the rest of the players could not keep up and Speedster’s were all out for 47 runs. The best bowler of the match was Speedster captain, Sai who took 5 wickets and gave away only 12 runs. Noteworthy also were Umesh and Aditya who batted and fielded well.
…..The day after
Shrewsbury - 8/17/2014: Praneet, the neutral umpire tossed the same quarter – this time I got to call it and President Washington showed face up again, In order not to disappoint old George again, we decided to bat. Umpires Ujwal and Praneet descended on the Municipal ground, followed closely by the SCC team, regretfully leaving Gopi behind as their cheerleader whose voice ranking high on the decibel meter is still ringing in our ears.
Opening for Shaheen XI was Atif and Aziz. Lady luck was with Atif, as Fazal dropped one of his catch. The next loft was, however, from Atif was brilliantly caught by Fazal at the boundary, but he unknowingly stepped out of the boundary momentarily, Shaheen XI shouting jumped on their feet, Ujwal raised both his hands to declare it a six, Gopi raised both his hands in protest, the umpire’s decision prevailed. No feathers ruffled. But all this commotion must have triggered something in Fazal. He got Aziz run out, Raqeeb run out, caught Najeeb off Naveen’s spin, got Omer’s and Zeeshan’s wicket. To add salt to injury, Shujaat (9) also got run out by Vezli and Atif run out by Chetan. Atif scored 25 runs, the highest between the two teams. Unfortunately the rest of the team could not stay longer on the crease as he did or even score into double digits. Shaheen XI scored 69 runs in 20 overs with the last two players still on the crease.
What appeared to be an easy target to achieve, SCC lost their open batsmen, Surya and Chetan with only 14 runs on the score board ( Shaheen XI was 31 when its second wicket fell). Then the partnership between Anil(16 runs) and Shyam(9) got the score running and at the loss of the 4rth wicket and 12th over SCC had scored 40. The stance between Fazal(8) and Srini(13) put SCC in a comfortable position 57 for 6 in 16.4 overs. Bowling well were Zakir ( 4 overs, 13 runs and 1 wicket), Rafeeq no wickets but only gave 11 runs in his 4 overs, Omer( 1 wicket for 5 runs in 2 overs)Shujaat and Omair, slightly costly overs but both took a wicket. The players (Zeeshan, Shujaat and Aziz) also managed to get 3 run outs each.
SCC reached the target of 70 runs in 17.4 overs when Vijay sent off the ball across the boundary when the score was 66.
It was a good game altogether – good luck to SCC and MCC1in the semi-finals - the Eagle has now landed.
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