United convincingly beats Warriors
Warriors 107 for 9 in 20 overs; United 108 for 4 in 19 overs
Batting first, Warriors made only 107 for 9 in their 20 overs. United bowling and fielding was top notch with their opening bowlers Ali and Navjot being impeccable. Ali continued to bowl his banana in-swingers with the new ball and it is indeed hard to play him with the new ball as Sudheer found out today. There was some brilliant fielding as well. Sashi running out Vishwa after a good fielding off his own bowling, Kamal getting run out of a deflection from the bowler's hand at the non-strikers end and two good catches by Amandeep to get rid of batsman who were beginning to do well. United catching played big part in their winning today.
For Warriors, both Kamal and Vishwas were playing well but ended up being run out under very unfortunate circumstances. Captain Sunny tried his best to fight out and hit one glorious straight bounard which was top notch shot. Towards the end, Javed bowled brilliantly, enticing the batsman with lovely flighted spin bowling which was a treat to watch as a straight umpire. Ultimately with great bowling and fielding, Warriors were restricted to 107.
Chasing was not that easy for United as Warriors re-grouped well and bowled brilliantly as well. It was credit to their bowling and outstanding team spirit that United could move to 37/3 in 10 overs. Prem bowled excellently and Javed who came one down had a torrid time. But the good thing that Javed did was to play the waiting game as he was contend on getting beaten and knocking here and there. Very sensible play. TJ also bowled two outstanding overs with the new ball and had opener Arvind at sea. Arvind , who was instrumental in getting United to the play off in the last game against Lions by scoring 50+, played very sensibly. I think that he did great service by keeping his wicket in the first few overs when the bowling was top notch. Goes to show how vital is to give a good opening batsman who understands the need to respect the bowlers when it is needed. Just when he was beginning to get going, he was LBW playing across which brought in my favorite Regal cricketer, Arvind Manjegowda, who stayed right till the end to seal the game.
As I said, the game was evenly poised when United needed 77 in 10 overs. This is where the brilliance of Javed shown through. After playing the waiting game so well, he began to open up just when needed. He played some brilliant inside out shots which is not an easy one to play. But he played them so easily as he stuck a few boundaries and also egged Manjegowda to go for ones and twos. When the game was still evenly poised with United still requiring 50+ to score with 7+ RPO, both batsman was dropped almost within a space of an over. Those catches were extremely costly and the unfortunate fact is that they were regulation catches with the Manjagowda being dropped by a skier behind the bowler. Although I don't want to name the poor fielder, he is someone who plays the game with so much pride, passion and spirit and would have got that vital catch of the game 99 times out of 100. I felt very sorry for that fielder since he kept on muttering that he had let down his team. I don't think so, having watched him over the years. It is just that things happen in a game of cricket and some days are not your day. Although it must hurt today, I have to tell my dear friend that you are a champion and that such moments are part and parcel of the game.
Coming to Javed, he was increasingly confident and began to play wonderful shots all around the park and that shot off Sridhar was a stand out. I thought that Javed was taking a short arm swing at a short pitched ball and the ball may probably go to the thirty yard, but the ball sailed over mid-wicket for a great sixer. He is one batsman I would like to watch bat every day because of the grace and timing.
Of Course there is no question as to my player of the league which is the one and only Arvind Manjegowda who duly clubbed two sixes of the last two balls of the game, one an enormous swing over mid-wicket and the winning six over cover. Although we tend to think of him as a swashbuckler, he is also a very sensible player who knocks the ball around when needed as he dug out a couple of good yorkers by Saurav who bowled with lots of spirit, But the beauty of Arvind's batting is the time he has to play and more importantly how the ball always find the middle of the bat.
United won with an over and 6 wickets to spare. Remarkable considering that they were at the bottom of the table with two games remaining in the regular season. Although they have to thank my man for the big turn around, it has to be said that United always has the spirit that never gives up and that showed up well and truly today. Congrats United.
What can I say about my dear Warriors. They played right through the season so well and although it has to be said that they were let down by their fielding in the last few games. But they will hang up from the league this year with pride since they were one of the teams to beat until the middle of the season. Sorry folks
Overall a close game which could have gone to the wire if Warriors held onto those crucial catches, although it must be said that United has many other capable batsman in their lineup in case of need.
With Tigers already in the finals, United will play MCC in the semi-finals. Expecting a cracker of a game.
Good luck to the teams who are still in contention and at the same time, hard-luck to the rest of the other three teams.
Last but not the least, thank you Regal for being part of our lives..
A few moments for the game
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