Sandesh Chavan and Amey Adkar’s great batting flattens CCD CHALLENGERS, giving victory to FCC

The cricket played over the last few weeks has been of a very high standards in CCD PROGRESSIVE CUP 2019. CCD CHALLENGERS and FRIENDS CRICKET CLUB have a history of great encounters over the years. This two teams have competed fiercely but sportingly. When you play T-20 cricket, you don’t give other team an inch. You play it tough, all the way, grinding your opposition into submission. FCC captain Hiren won the toss and elected to bat first in this all important encounter.  put on a display of good attacking stroke play. Sandesh was giving all bowlers a good old style pasting. His knock mesmerized the Challenger bowlers. 9 fours and 4 sixes of his bat were the treat to watch. Deepak’s 29 balls 37 runs laced with 6 boundary’s helped FCC put on a fantastic 112 run opening partnership. The atmosphere on the ground was fantastic. It was raining fours and sixes and FCC dugout was egging their players on to continue the good work. FCC were running away with the game. None of the bowlers could halt this opening pair from scoring freely. Dr Satya was introduced into the attack, and he delivered big time for his team. He accounted for both the set openers in quick succession. Deepak was brilliantly caught by Aakash and Satish took a nice catch to dismiss dangerous Sandesh off Satya’s bowling. Satya’s line and length was too good for FCC batsmen. His figures of 4 overs, 24 runs and 2 wickets doesn’t really depict how well Satya bowled. FCC were 2 down but had maintained very handsome run rate. But a cluster of wickets certainly helped Challenger’s pull back things a bit. Nimish after a brief start was brilliantly runout by Ankit. Hiren and Ashish were also dismissed quickly. Ashutosh and Ankit in their second spell certainly bowled well. Challengers were making a good come back into the match, But as some one has said ” A true batsman should in most of his strokes tell the truth about himself.” Well Amey who walked into bat at No. 4 certainly fits that bill. He played a sheet anchors role for FCC. The way he went about his innings is really praise worthy. Taking his one’s and two’s quickly, putting away the bad balls over boundary and holding one end up. A perfect innings under the circumstances, certainly a masterclass performance by Amey. FCC’s batting brilliance catapulted them to a score of mammoth 210 in 20 overs. Satya’s great bowling, Yogesh Mehendale’s 2 wickets for 27 runs and Ashutosh’s 1 wicket for 30 runs were only note worthy bowling performance for Challenger’s. All other Challenger bowlers struggled on the docile pitch.

Challengers were up against it­, needing more than 10 runs per over to win this match. Aakash began brilliantly scoring 15 runs in 5 balls that he faced. He hit couple of superb fours and a towering six. Just as a we thought what a brilliant start, Akash was runout by Hiren. A jolt for Challengers who had a mountain to climb. Steve was steadying the innings from one end but continuous fall of wickets was not helping Challengers cause. Manish Mehta, Pratik and Satish Devkate all got decent starts but were unable to convert it into a good score. All 3 wickets fell in quick succession. FCC were smelling blood and whole team on the field were chatting up the atmosphere by egging their bowlers to get more Challenger batsmen out. Steve was guarding one end well, with a boundary here and there which kept the score board moving. But need of the hour was four’s and sixes. Parag Kelkar walked in with situation getting really tough for Challengers in the chase. He scored magical 38 of just 20 balls, glittering with 3 fours and 3 sixes. His innings pumped up the Challengers side. Whole Challengers dugout was leaping and screaming in joy, as finally a befitting reply to FCC ballers. Both Steve and Parag were on to a something special here. Runs were coming thick and fast. But yet it seemed like a bridge too far. It’s often said a good cricketer never loses his nerve. He just bats on! Well Parag is certainly a good batsman but lost his nerve and wicket to Ankit Sharma, who claimed 3 Challenger wickets. Ankit quashed any hopes of revival of Challengers chase. Satya kept hopes alive with few big blows but it seemed an impossible task as Challengers kept losing wickets. Steve played well for his 47 ball 61 runs, laced with 10 fours. The innings seemed slow for a T-20 game, but only if other Challenger batsmen had rallied around him, making contributions, you never know what would had been. Challengers lost by 30 odd runs. Manoj and Ankit bowled well for FCC. Those who witnessed the game would certainly label it as a BLOCKBUSTER!