Semi-final Action!

And then there were four. After a month of thrilling action, the teams left standing at the final weekend of our 1^st LiveSport Open T20 Challenge were Vedic Naturals, Stoners, CSCA, and Globex International. Both semi-finals were lined up for Saturday, with the final match to be played on Sunday. This is where performances really matter, and we eagerly awaited 44 motivated players to take the field over the course of the day.

Semi-final 1: Vedic Naturals vs Stoners

On paper this was an evenly balanced game between two strong all-round teams.

Ayush smacking a six

Devraj, Cristy and Kuldeep from Vedic Naturals, and Ayush, Mustafa and Rakesh from Team Stoners held the key to their respective teams’ fortunes. Vedic Naturals won the toss and elected to field first. They started off on a good note too, with Arun picking up Kartik’s wicket in the third over. This brought Ayush to the crease, Stoners’ best batsman. We know now that Ayush takes a while to get going, and his first ten balls are his most nervous moments. Unsurprisingly, after 5 overs, Stoners were 25 for 1. In the 6^th over, this could have got worse – a lot worse – when Ayush spanked a shot straight down Kuldeep’s throat at long on. Kuldeep latched on to the catch, before, to the disbelief of his entire team, the ball spilled out of his hands. 

Was this going to be a costly miss? We all sensed the answer to that question, and Ayush confirmed the fielding team’s worst fears, belting 15 runs off the 7^th over. From there on, it was one way traffic, as the ball was carted all around the park and into adjoining properties. Ably supported by Akshar (36) and Sumit (37 not out), Ayush belted a rapid 79 off 41 balls, highlighted by 7 sixes and 7 fours. Stoners ended their innings at an impressive 189 for 5.

Cristy looks on

Vedic Naturals, and especially Cristy and Devraj, had their work cut out. Binoo and Ashwini were knocked out early by Sumit and Rakesh respectively, but the big blow was delivered when Mustafa came on to bowl the 9^th over. He had Cristy caught in the outfield off his first ball, and he got rid of NP Singh three balls later with a straightforward return catch. Kuldeep and Devraj put together a 46-run partnership to restore hope, but Kuldeep (24) and then Kapil (10) were both stumped off the bowling of Rachit. Then Rakesh came back to pick up the crucial wicket of Devraj (22) in his last over. This was the final nail in the coffin,

Rakesh set to deliver

and Stoners won by a comfortable margin of 36 runs in the end.

Stoners:                      5/189 in 20 overs

                              Ayush 79 (41)

Sumit 37*(24)

Akshar 36 (31)

           

Vedic Naturals:               153 all out in 20 overs

                              Cristy 27 (21)

                              Rakesh 3/17 (4)

                              Rachit 2/18 (2)

                             

SPARTAN Man of the Match:     Ayush 

Semi-final 2: Globex International vs CSCA

We all expected this to be a really close game, but it turned out to be one of the most one-sided matches of our tournament. With this game, CSCA announced themselves as clinical performers par excellence and front-runners for the title.

Zubair in flight

Winning the toss and electing to field first, CSCA immediately handed the ball to Abhishek, their pace spearhead and easily the fastest bowler of our tournament. He wasted no time in delivering the first blow, as he got Deepak to nick one to the wicketkeeper of the second ball of the match. To our surprise, left-arm seamer Zubair came out to bat one down, and he has some skill with the bat. He used Abhishek’s pace and width beautifully, knocking him for four boundaries square of the wicket on the off-side. At 58 for 1 in the 8^th over, Globex seemed to be building a steady platform. However, off-spinner captain

Raman, bowling his second over, struck a double-blow. First he had Zubair out caught for 44, and he immediately followed it up with the wicket of Atul. Those two wickets triggered off the most sensational collapse of our tournament, as Globex slumped from 58 for 1 to 88 all out.

Ajay, chief destroyer with the bat from the previous game, wreaked havoc with his left-arm spin this time. He bowls a nagging

Pace and fire

line and length with a high arm action, and is very hard to take away for runs. In this game, one after another, batsmen tried to get him away for runs and perished in the attempt. Ajay ended up with the tournament’s first and only 5-wicket haul, with figures of 5 for 20 from 4 overs.

89 is no target for a good batting side, and the match was as good as over by the time CSCA came out to bat. CSCA knocked off the runs in 11.5 overs for the loss of 2 wickets, with opener Devender topping the run chart with 47 (33 balls).

Ajay sends a whizzer

He missed out on a fifty when he skied a catch to long on off the bowling of Manish.

Globex International:         88 all out in 15.4 overs

                              Zubair 44 (29)

Ajay 5/20 (4)

                              Raman 2/17 (4)

                             

CSCA:                         2/93 in 11.5 overs

                              Devender 47 (33)

                             

SPARTAN Man of the Match:     Ajay

Finally, then, the tournament headed to its final Sunday and the two teams left standing were Stoners and CSCA. Both teams had taken contrasting paths to the

Devender prepares to hit

final, and they had already met once in the group stage. That had turned out to be a relatively one-sided encounter, with CSCA winning comfortably. Without doubt, CSCA were the stronger unit, but Stoners had proved to be resilient, and they were not to be taken lightly. We waited with bated breath. What was our final day going to bring?