Satish’s Stellar Show Sinks MP in 1st Match of CCD PROGRESSIVE CUP 2019

All the hoopla and excitement for the Progressive Trophy was worth it’s while I guess. Certainly very intriguing day’s play was witnessed on the first day of the CPC 2019. At All Saints Challengers won the toss and put MP into bat. As usual the All Saint wicket in the morning was little damp and too paced from at least one end. As ball was often stopping and coming onto the bat. Batsman were finding it extremely hard to make stroke play from that end. Shirke blasted 3 boundary’s at the start of MP’s innings. Nice blazing start by MP. But it was short lived as a frenzy of great fielding saw MP lose their top 3 batsmen for next to nothing. Aakash took 2 astounding catches off Ashutosh’s bowling. Ninad also took a blinder at short third to jolt MP’s charge. All in all MP couldn’t get partnerships going. Note worthy contributions by Rahul/35, Shreyas/19, Shirke/26, Brajendra/15 and Harsh 18 took MP to a respectable 123 runs in 20 overs. Ashu took 4 wickets for 25 runs. Certainly a good come back by him after leaking 3 boundary’s in first over. Pratik also bowled an excellent spell but was very unlucky not to get any wickets.

Challengers didn’t get off to a good start as Aakash and Slyvi both were dismissed to mis-timed shots. Pratik and YM were trying to steady the innings but MP bowlers were bowling an excellent line and length backed up buy good fielding, which didn’t allow Challengers to get going in their chase. The leg spinner Nishant was the best bowler for MP. Bowling with good loop and guile, giving away just 12 runs in his 4 overs. Great effort by Mayank too. Giving away just 8 runs in his 3 overs and picked up 2 wickets. Things started looking very gloomy for Challengers. Increasing run rate put extra pressure on their batsman. Same old problem of not rotating the strike, and loosing cluster of wickets cost challengers dearly. Run rate reached above 12 runs per over. Match was good as gone. Satya’s 2 back to back boundary’s made a positive impact on the chase proceedings but as he got out the hope of victory for challengers all but extinguished. Cometh the hour, cometh the man, new boy Satish had other things on his mind. Scoring 38 runs of just 13 balls, studded with 4 sixes, knocked the wind out of MP. The onslaught was very precise. Satish’s body language, didn’t display any tension otherwise as he went about his six hitting spree very casually. Especially the flat six straight over the bowlers head was a classic gem. Last ball, one to win, all the field was brought up. But Satish didn’t panic, he just nudged the ball on the off side and ran like hell for that famous single run, which not only made Challengers win from an impossible situation, but also catapulted Satish to a rising STAR status in CCD ranks. Superb knock by Satish, who was ideally supported by Ashutosh from the other end. A memorable win for Challengers and Satish.