STMicro vs AAI : Suntan Cup'05

Match : ST Cricket Team (STCT) 's Pre-Quarter Final match in SunTan Cup `05
Story till date : STCT had won prev 3 matches in league and are placed at no. 2 in overall list.
Date : 13th Nov, 05
Venue : Central Sectt. Ground, Chankaya Puri
Opponents : AAI ( Airport Authority of India)
Match conditions : Lot of Morning dew, Wet outfield but Dry and Hard wicket.
Toss : AAI won the toss and elected to bat

The 13th day of November, Central Sectt. Ground , it was a breezy morning with little bit of moisture on ground and lot of dryness and hardness on wicket , looking like a beauty of a wicket for batting and some help for seamers as well.

Our captain Bharat lost the toss and the other team decided to bat first on that lively pitch.Our bowlers started well keeping a nice line and length, and the batsmen were playing cautiously. But soon they started playing shots and took the score to 40 runs without losing any wicket in the first 5 overs. Then the first change bowler Vij put some brakes on the scoring rate and started his spell with a maiden. Narwal joined him and they both bowled some tight overs . The introduction of Sudip after 10 overs changed the course of the match and AAI batsmen started to feel the heat. Sudip mesmerised them with his slow inswingers and a beauty of a delivery from him got the better of the batsman and he was stumped by our keeper Bharat.

The other opener also departed soon loosing his leg stump to a slow inswinger from Sudip. Sudip popularly known as "dada" in our team bowled probably the best spell of the tournament and got 4 wickets for 9 runs in his quota of 5 overs. Vij at the other end supported him well and bowled a good spell of 5 overs conceding only 21 runs. Jeswani and Ankur bowled some tight overs in the end and restricted AAI to 133 in their allocated 25 overs. It was a remarkable comeback by our bowlers after the initial burst from their openers.

ST Micro started off well by smashing 25 runs off the first 4 overs. Bharat was hitting the ball so beautifully that AAI captain was forced to change the opener bowlers within 4 overs. Lokesh lost his wicket on a ball which kept little low and score card read 27/1 at the end of 5 overs. Das went in next and started playing his shots from the very first ball. The introduction of spin bowlers slowed down the run rate a little bit. Both of them played cautiously for some overs and then started to play their shots. Runs were literally flowing from their bat and they started hitting boundaries at will.

Bharat completed his second fifty of the tournament with a six over long off and soon perished while trying to up the run rate. With less than 30 runs to win and plenty of wickets in hand , Das showed why he is been considered the best batsman in the present tournament. He made sure that there is no pressure on new batsman Narwal by hitting 2 consecutive boundaries and then finished the match in style by hitting 2 more boundaries in 20th over. It was an innings in which Das and Bharat showed lot of maturity and didn't loose their composure and made sure they are finishing the match in style with a 7 wicket victory.

Once again, this match showed that we are coming up as a team and we are in a position to lift our games and do a justice to our potentials and prove that we are a good team.

Match summary :


BOWLING
-------

Indranil 2 0 20 0
Jeswani 5 0 26 1
Vij 5 1 21 0
Narwal 5 0 28 0
Sudip 5 1 09 4
Ankur 3 0 23 2

AAI 131/8 in 25 overs

Fielding: Bharat 3 stumpings 1 run out, Jeswani 1 catch,



BATTING
-------

Bharat 60(58) Stumped
Lokesh 07(10) Bowled
Das 47*(39) Not Out
Narwal 13(16) LBW
Jeswani 01*(01) Not Out


TOTAL 133/3 in 20 overs

MOM: Sudip Basu

RESULT : STCT won the Pre-Quarter Final match by 7 wkts.

Tournament till now
1. vs IOC - won by 63 runs
2. vs ABN Amro - won by 100 runs
3. vs XANSA - won by 87 runs
4. vs AAI - won by 7 wkts