Cricket Round One : First Match

The opening cricket match of TCS@Walgreens sports month was played between CRK1(led by Virender Chaudhary) and CRK2(led by Md Fraheem). This match was of equal importance for both the teams since format of the tournament made it a knock out situation for both of them. We saw some outstanding performances in the match with Ankur Sen and Hariom Sharma from CRK2 playing handful innings and Saida Mannava bowling his heart out. Rishabh Dvivedi and kamal kaul from CRK1 coming up with potentially two of the best spells of the tournament and Virender Chaudhary showing the spectators why he was made the captain of the CRK1 team by playing one of the most matured innings in the history of this tournament.
Virender won the toss for his team and took no time in deciding to bowl first on a wicket which was totally new for both the teams. Ankur Sen and Sangyshetty gave a decent start to CRK1 with Shetty being more offensive hitting 2 consecutive fours. But he had to go due to a poor umpiring decision after making a quickfire 11 runs. Ankur sen and Hariom sharma had a good partnership. Both played sensibly and took the score into 30's.Just when both looked settled, Rishabh Dvivedi provided the breakthrough with the precious wicket of Hariom. Hariom made 14 but the middle and lower order failed badly. CRK2 managed to get a respectable total of 75 runs even after a major collapse triggered by Rishabh, thanks to Ashish Bhadviya who scored 14. Rishabh dvivedi was the most devastating bowler and took four wickets giving away just 16 runs in his quota of 4 overs. Kamal and Virender were also good but it was Rishabh who stood out in the bowling and CRK2 was bundled out for 75 runs.Virender got 2 wickets for 15 runs.Kamal gave only 11 runs off his 4 overs.Virender also took two catches.
A target of 76 in 16 overs looked easy initially but CRK2's strike bowlers had different intentions. Saida was deadly in his first spell picking up one wicket in each of his first three overs.It looked as if he did not know what the leg stump was, since he bowled on or outside the off stumps at a brisk pace throughout his spell. Saida was not 100% fit. He had a cramp during pratice. Had he been fully fit, this match would have been even more exciting.Hariom Sharma on the other end was not ready to let the batsmen score freely. Amit Thapar was caught behind the wickets by Amit Arora off the bowling of Saida while Hariom took a stunning catch to dismiss Rishi Mehrotra. When Hariom clean bowled Jetal on 5,CRK1 was 3 down for merely 17 runs and it looked as if 75 could prove to be a match winning score. But Virender who opened the innings with Amit thapar got the perfect partner in form of Kamal Kaul. Lack of the good third and fourth bowler increased the woes of CRK2. Both Virender and Kamal played in single and doubles initially and took the score past 50 and once the match was in their reach they started playing their shots. Virender placed his innings perfectly and didn't try to hit it too hard initially. He hit three boundaries in his unbeaten innings of 33 runs.He could not have find a better time to play this innings. Kamal also played some eye cathing pull shots through square leg and fine leg.He also hit 3 fours in his score of 27 without being dismissed.Virender led from the front picking up 2 wickets, holding up 2 catches and scoring 33 unbeaten runs for his team.
Finally it was the partnership of 59 runs between Virender and Kamal which not only changed the course of the match but also proved to be a match winning one.With this win CRK1 moved to second round, fixing the contest with CRK5 which directly went to the second round through a lucky draw. For his all round performance, Virender Chaudhary was declared the man of the match.
It was interesting to see Nishant Daruka, the captain of CRK5 team,on the field throughout the match, probably trying to take a glimpse of the strengths and weaknesses of his opposition teams. Was it a mere passion of watching cricket or a shrewdness of a responsible captain? We will get to know the answers as the tournament progresses.