Third Victory of the season!!

Saturday, May the 13th Koeln CC marked its third consecutive victory in the 2017 season of Regional Liga. On a bright sunny day Koeln CC won the 50 over match against CICC, quite convincingly

Irfan Ahmed was filling in the shoes of Rishi Pillai, chose to bowl after winning the toss. Clear skies, soothing temperature was a perfect combination for batters. CICC started quite cautiously. Their openers gave them a solid start thanks to sloppy fielding at the beginning. But Koenl CC lifted themselves later. It was a nice combination of attack and defence. But it didn’t last long till the left arm spinner Jimit Patel chipped in. Jimit with his orthodox left arm spin broke the solid opening stand. After couple of dropped catches off the pacers the spin tricked them initially. Appu was quite consistent with his line and length. Bowled his full quota of 10 overs on trot. Irfan was also persitent with his bowling but was unlucky not to take a wicket. It was a pretty disciplined attack.

The CICC batters dug in and batted with an intent. CICC batters were happy to spend the time in the middle and were strongly positioned on 78 for 2. But then the pace of Zadran struck them. And from 78 for 2 they were down to 82 for 5. CICC batters consumed lots of dot balls, unable to rotate the strike did not help their innings to build any momentum later. Another left arm spinner of Koeln CC, Shrihail Joshi came in and took quick wickets. With keeping the length quite difficult to deal with and turning the odd ball, he created a good pressure. In desperation to score quick the CICC batters just lost the plot. CICC was all out in the 48th over with the score of 132. With Jimit and Shrishail claiming three wickets each and seamer Zadran leading them with 4 wickets.

KoelnCC came out all guns blazing in their chase. Specially, wicket-keeper batsman Satya, hitting 42 off 31 balls. The solid start and first opening stand of 50 runs of the season between Satya and Shrishail, build the solid foundation for the victory. KoelnCC was already 63 in 7 overs before Satya miss timed a pull to square leg. One down batsmen Avishek formed a stable partnership with Shrishail and took the score ahead. A solid defence backed with perfect timing and scoring shots both the batsmen made sure that the chase was on track. Nearing the target, Avishek fell to a spinner after hitting him for a six. Zadran and Shrishail carried on with the chase. But Shrishail and Zadran both fell with 12 runs remaining for the victory. Shrishail who was batting steadily looked determined to finish the innings but a top edge of a pull shot was caught by the keeper. Zadran was brilliantly stumped off the young leggie of CICC. It was all again on Jagdish and Gaurav to take the KoelnCC over the line. This time Jagdish taking the driver’s seat hit the leggie over deep fine leg. He finished the game with solid pull to a solid six!

All in all it was a nice day and comfortable victory for KoenlCC. Brief Scores: CICC 132/10 in 47.4 overs. KölnCC 133/4 in 23.4 overs.