Match Report: Topguns outgunned by JMA

A league match of the Summer Slam Premier League T-20 was played between the Topguns and JMA on 9th July 2022. The venue for the game was Krickshetra Sports Ground, Noida. JMA won the toss and elected to bat first.

JMA had a relatively sedate start in the powerplay, they scored 41 runs for the loss of two wickets. Opener Nitin Chikara contributed 29 runs to the team before the aggressive partnership between Akshay Tandon (47) and Ashish (33). The duo added 57 quick-fire runs in just under six overs. Southpaw Akshay Tandon stole the show with a fine inning of 47 off just 27 balls. Anand Verma provided the finishing touch with a handy cameo of 35 runs at the back end of the innings which helped JMA to cross the 160-run mark.

Opening bowler Sahil Bhatia was the pick of the bowlers for topguns. He bowled brilliantly and returned with the figures of 3-24 in his four overs. Shashank Bharti (2-44) was expensive, but he scalped two important wickets. Arpit Mehrotra was economical too. Finally, JMA finished their innings at 168-7 at the end of twenty overs.

In reply, the topguns had a slow and steady start to their innings. Sushant (30) and Shobhit (30) tried to stabilize the innings, but they couldn’t capitalize on their starts. The top 3 batsmen of the topguns failed to accelerate the innings. As a result, the asking rate started creeping up. They required 79 runs in the last six overs. Arpit Mehrotra and Amit (19) batted aggressively and tried their best to pull off a fantastic win for their team. Arpit played brilliantly for his knock of 39 off just 24 balls. However, none of the topguns batsmen was able to make a substantial contribution to the total.

JMA displayed a solid and collective bowling effort. Barring one, all bowlers entered into the wickets column of the scorecard. Anand Verma, Mohit Sharma, and Harendra Chaudhary had imposing and economical bowling figures. Harendra Chaudhary was the pick of the bowlers as he took 2 wickets for just 29 runs in his quota of four overs.

JMA stopped the topguns charge at 148-7 at the end of twenty overs. In the end, JMA won the match comfortably by 20 runs. Akshay Tandon was adjudged as the man of the match for his superb performance.

-Charvak Naik

Click below to watch the game highlights: