Dreamz Regular Champions: IndusInd Bank defeat CEAT by 3 runs in a Nail Biting Finish
Venue: Fort Vijay Cricket Ground Mumbai | Match Scorecard | Tournament Details
Last over. 8 runs to win. 7 to tie. 3 wickets in hand. Any bowler would not fancy his chances in today’s game in this situation. No pressure of boundaries. Only singles and doubles would do. But what happens is 2 out of the remaining 3 wickets fall on the first two balls with just one run being added. Now the situation reads 7 to win from 4 balls with a solitary wicket in hand. Still anybody’s game. But bowler Narayan keeps his cool and gives just 3 more runs and takes the final wicket on the penultimate ball of the match handing his team a 3 run victory.
In the quarter final of Dreamz Trophy Regular Champions, IndusInd Bank won the toss and opted to bat first. They had worst of starts as opener Jay was out for a duck on the third ball of the match. No. 3 batsman Sagar joined hands with other opener Kailash and both had a partnership of 50 runs in 49 balls.
After the fall of Kailash’s wicket, Sagar had short but important partnerships with Saurabh and Yogesh and took the score past 100. They eventually scored 143 runs in their allotted 20 overs. CEAT’s Ajay was the pick of the bowlers with 3 wickets in his quota of 4 overs.
143 was a modest total and has been chased easily in the past. But the match went closer than expected. CEAT’s batting was all about opener Shirish who controlled the innings single handed with a sparkling 49 ball 74 consisting 9 boundaries. Once he got out, no other batsman could do the finishing job as they could not score the required 8 runs in the last over and fell short by only 3 runs.
IndusInd bowlers Jitendra and Narayan managed 3 wickets each while 2 wickets went to Yogesh. But it was Narayan’s last over heroics that helped IndusInd ending on the winning side. Man of the Match Sagar, for his excellent innings of 65 of just 44 balls was adjudged man of the match.
Here’s what Sagar has to say: “It was an extraordinary game of cricket. Due to some superb bowling at the end we were able to pull it off. Credit goes to the bowlers Yogesh, Jitendra, Kailash and Narayan who bowled superbly. Also we started our batting well but could not capitalize in the last 5 overs. CEAT bowled and fielded well. Overall it was a stunning effort by entire IndusInd Unit.”
Brief Scores:
IndusInd: 143 all out in 20 overs (Sagar 65, Yogesh 27, Ajay 3/21)
CEAT: 140 All out in 19.5 overs (Shirish 74, Narayan 3/24, Jitendra 3/34)
Match Report By:
Sumanyu Jain
(Regional Manager & Editor @CricketGraph)