Scorecard

Knights Reds v Heartland Cricket League CR ALL STARS on Sat 24 Jun 2006 at 2:30
Heartland Cricket League Won 4 Wickets

Match report This was one for the record books. We were matched up against arch rivals and the heavily favoured Reds. Due to travel time all the teams playing on Saturday were happy to let us play the first game. That meant leaving Cedar Rapids by 6:00 AM to reach in time to warm up for an 8:30 AM start.
Changes for the game: Mike was making his CLIA debut for the All Stars.Sunil was out due to his injury from the previous game and Himanshu was out due to family committments.
Toss: Mamu had lost 3 tosses in a row and to looking for a change of luck he sent Mathew in for the toss. Things did not change as Reds won the toss and elected to bat first.
Reds Innings:
Perhaps Rishav was missing Himanshu as his opening partner or perhaps it was the big match blues but things didn't exactly start off on the right foot for him.Waqar and Mangesh looked to force the issue from the beginning like always and belted Rishav for a couple of boundaries to start the game.Johnny opened the bowling and he kept a tidy line to try and stem the run flow from one side. Rishav however found the going tough as he was proving expensive and he was taken off after 4 overs. Trying to entice the batsmen with a change of pace perhaps, Mamu brought on Mathew for an over. The ploy did not work out as Mathew was taken for 18 runs. On the other hand Johnny kept his head up and finished his opening spell with figures of 4-0-24-0. Quite economical considering the rate at which the batsmen were scoring.Sridhar cam on as first change as early as the 9th/10th over but to no effect.
We were bowling with no zing, the batsmen were stealing cheeky singles and there were plenty of extras as well.It seemed we were still in our sleep.
Desperately in search of a wicket Mamu then gave the ball to Sendhil. Sridhar was taken off after an expensive first over and Amer was pressed into service. We were almost immediately rewarded as Mangesh mistimed to longon, only to be dropped by Yasar. Almost immediately Amer dropped one too that would have dismissed Waqar.He was however bowling a tidy line, but with no wickets to show as we went into break we were looking at a mammoth run chase.
After 15 overs the Reds were at 145/0
Things were definitely not in our favour at this stage and a 280-300 run chase was on the cards. We however made amends to our pathetic fielding effort after the break. Rishav judged a nice one at long off to dismiss Waqar as Sendhil began weaving his magic. In the meantime Amer was giving his 100 % as he completed his quota of 6 overs without a break. He ended the day with: 6-0-37-0. Their scoring rate dropped soon after Mangesh was dismissed by Sendhil.Wickets were falling at regular intervals and we were holding on to everything that came our way.
If anyone was watching the game, they would have doubted if we were the same team.
Rishav was brought back into the attack and he got 2 wickets off 2 balls. Both catches went to Amer at longoff.He ended the day with 3 catches, after dropping the first one that came his way.
In between Sendhil foxed Nishad (those two go at each other every game) and had him stumped by Mike. Mike also took a nice running catch earlier. Sendhil ended the day with figures of: 6-0-36-3.
Yasar got into the act as he threw out a player with a direct hit from third man as the batsmen were looking to force the issue in the slog overs.
Johnny came back to bowl the penultimate over and he was rewarded with a wicket.He finished with figures of: 5-0-29-1
Rishav had better figures for his second spell but ended the day with: 6-0-61-3.
We did admirably well to restrict Reds to 243, only 98 runs coming off the final 15 overs.

All Stars Inning:
All those who had played the practice game in Cedar Rapids amongst ourselves knew the kind of player we had in Michael. Unfortunately for the Reds they weren't there on that day.
I think it would be right to say that Michael took the game into his own hands. Never before have i seen any player (in person) launch into an opposition's bowling with such ferocity, mayhem and clean crisp hitting. The Reds were taken by storm as Michael and Siva went about their merry way, scoring almost at will. Every over was producing 10 runs and the team 100 was on by the 10th over. Their was silence on the ground and the only sound was that of timber against the red cherry when it was being belted around. No bowling change worked as we were sitting pretty at 165/0 after 15 overs.
Michael had already reached his century with the help of 12 sixes and Siva was only happy to play second fiddle.
Soon after the lemon break Michael lost his wicket as he came down the wicket and got bowled. During his stay at the wicket he never looked like he was going to get out and the only reason he got out was because he was tired. The highlight of his inning ( in my opinion ) was a six over the midwicket boundary that went into the softball field.
The Reds felt they had gotten the breakthrough they needed. At this point we still needed another 75 odd runs. Johnny strode in to join Siva and looked in good touch. He dropped anchor as he looked to rotate the strike and take us closer to our target of 244.
In the meantime Siva got a reprieve when he was dropped at long off. He did not last long though as he holed out to widish long on soon after for a well compiled 42.
Sridhar came in after that and managed to hit a straight six before he played all over and got bowled for 8. The game was getting closer and closer, although the asking rate was still within manageable proportions.
With the kind of shots that Amer is capable of, most of the strike went to him as he hit a few handsome shots on his way to 19. He hoicked one to widish long on and was unable to clear the ropes.
At this point of time we were still 20 runs away and there were 3 overs to go. Rishav came in next and played a horrendous shot as he got bowled, first ball. At this point memories of last year's semi-final came flooding back. Would we fall short AGAIN ?
It thus came down to captain and vice-captain.
The equation was simple: we had 12 balls and we needed 17 runs.
Without hitting a single boundary the pair eked out 11 runs with the fielders standing upto the batsmen.The pair ran for everything.
The final over was being bowled by Utpal and we needed 5 runs. Johnny was on strike.
The first ball was pulled as two runs were scored.
3 runs off 5 balls.
Next ball: Dot ball
3 runs off 4 balls.
Next ball: Johnny goes for a hoick. He misses, ball hits wicket and he is gone.
Next batsman in was Sendhil and off the first ball he faced he scored a 6, Javed Miandad style.
Possibly remembering his weakness to short deliveries the bowler pitched it short. Sendhil had other ideas though as he was not going to be back down this time. He went through his shot and it produced the maximum.
We were home with 2 balls to spare.
TRULY A GREAT VICTORY AND HOPEFULLY A SIGN OF MORE SUCCESS TO COME AGAINST THIS TEAM.
Michael deservedly gets this week's PLAYER OF THE WEEK award for his heroic 116, a crucial stumping and a catch. Might I add, this is the highest individual score for Cedar Rapids All Stars against any team, and that too on debut.
Please join me in congratulating Mike for his stupendous performance that showed the Reds where they rightly belong.
PS: feel free to add to this match report.


Heartland Cricket League CR ALL STARS Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 6 wickets
0
247
(0.0 overs)		    
Sivaramakrishnan Sattanathan Caught  42
Mike Strydom Bowled  116 1 1
Johnny Basu Bowled  24
Sridhar Prathivadi Bowled  8
Amer Ijaz Caught  19 3
Rishav Bista Bowled  0 1
Amir Sial Not Out  5
Sendhil Selvamani Not Out  6
Mathew Alexander  
Yasar Ijaz  
Naveen S  

Knights Reds Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sashank Ganti2.002600.0013.00
Mangesh Ambardekar6.005800.009.67
Utpal Patel4.403248.006.86
Manish Hood4.003500.008.75
Tariq Shaikh6.004700.007.83
Vinod Patel1.002000.0020.00
Bobby Patel6.0028214.004.67

Knights Reds Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
243 (0.0 overs)
Mangesh Ambardekar Caught  83
Waqar Shaikh Caught  31
Tariq Shaikh Caught  35
Utpal Patel Caught  10
Nishad Dhurandhar Stumped  7
Vinod Patel Run out  21
Sashank Ganti Not Out  7
Bobby Patel Bowled  0
Manish Hood Caught  5
Naveed Alam Run out  0
Syed Shakeeb Not Out  5

Heartland Cricket League CR ALL STARS Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Rishav Bista6.0061320.3310.17
Johnny Basu5.0029129.005.80
Mathew Alexander1.001800.0018.00
Sridhar Prathivadi6.005300.008.83
Sendhil Selvamani6.0136312.006.00
Amer Ijaz6.003700.006.17