SCORECARD
STATISTICS
A beautiful sunny Saturday with a lot of pressure on the boys to get a positive result. After a good warm up, Niro won the toss and opted to bat first after looking at the flat crouch end pitch. Mustafa and Ragu went it but didn’t start well with Mustafa pulling the ball straight to the man at square leg in only the 2nd over. This bought the inform skipper to the crease to try to steady the ship. Ragu fell soon after crunching the ball straight to the man in short cover (he didn’t really know anything about it, it just kind of stuck in his hand).
New comer Milinder came to the crease when MTSSC were 2 wickets down within 5 over’s and another collapse looked imminent, but Niro had other ideas as after a initial slow start, he went on to bludgeon the crouch end bowlers all over the park. Some excellent support from Milinder who went about his business by knocking quick singles and batting loose balls to the boundary with perfect placement. Niro quickly went to 50 for the second week in a row and didn’t stop even with all the fielders on the line he still found the boundary. As he came close the 100, heat and fatigue became too much for him unfortunately he hauled out on the line on 92 narrowly missing out on the ton.
This bought in Thiva after some time out of the side and he showed why he is so important to side with some great batting. Milinder got to his 50 before giving a simple catch trying to hit over the covers but Kasan and Thiva continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over. Then with 7 over’s remaining the skipper gave the order to get some fast runs and Thiva accepted the offer with abundance has he smashed the ball hitting 5 massive 6’s before unluckily being caught out to a ball which looked dubiously over waist height. Looking good at 220 for 6 MTSSC suddenly lost control and lost 6 wickets for only 15 runs which made used finish on 236 in 53 over’s. (Its should have been more)
In the field, the boys started well, with pace of Kavi and Thiva too much for the crouch end top order and home side found themselves 3 wickets down for 33, after one of the best balls ever coming back in of the seem to take the off stump of Crouch End oversees player. They showed some resistance with the home team skipper notching up a steady 50 and some support form the number 6, but in the end with some tight bowling from Milinder and the guile, flight and turn form the ever so reliable Ragu made it too hard a task and Crouch end lost 4 quick wickets, leaving 6 over’s for the tail to compromise for a draw. The skipper bought back the quick pair to see if we can get through the end batsmen, but no matter what we tried the kept everything out. Thiva picked up the number 9 LBW with his first ball of the last over of the game, but in the end Crouch End saved the draw with only one wicket to get.
Positives, Another excellent knock from Niro(92), Milinders 50 and tight bowling, Thivas return, market 40+ and 3 wickets (good to have you back), and Ragu 3 wickets. One thing to note was the attitude of the team, Tat winning mentality is well and truly back, so let keep going!!!
SCORECARD
STATISTICS
