Brief
Scores
TCS: 9 / 133 in 20 overs
Sumit 48 (27)
Parveen
24 (37)
Raja
3/9 (4)
Sant
Ram 3/24 (4)
HDFC Bank: 8 / 96 in 20 overs
Sant Ram 30 (46)
Maneesh
2/19 (4)
Avinash 2/21 (4)
Parveen
2/21 (4)
Man of
the Match: Sumit
Sehrawat (TCS)
Best
Performer: Raja
Gurmeet (HDFC Bank)
Complete
Scorecard: http://bit.ly/1wguWbJ
TCS
Recover from 53 / 7, Seal a Berth in Semis
TCS started as favorites against a depleted HDFC Bank
side that was missing some of their key players. In LFL 2014, however, there
were no easy wins for TCS. Nor, for that matter, did they concede any freebies.
What they did with this match was confirm their reputation as being a team that
plays out dramatic contests. Every match of theirs had a phase where they
clearly lost the plot, only to turn it around with a determined fight-back, and
hold their nerve at the death. Sumit, Jagdeep and Vikram have provided some of
the best late-order crisis batting in the tournament. However, TCS never fell
behind quite as sensationally as they did in this game, and neither did they
need their late order batsmen to fire this desperately before.
TCS
Blitzkrieged by Raja
In a surprise move that went on to yield spectacular
success, HDFC threw the ball to off-spinner Raja for the first over. A bowler
who neither gives the ball much tweak nor any pace, Raja looks innocuous from
the sidelines. He is an experienced performer, though, and he uses control and deceptive
changes of pace to his advantage. However, neither he nor his team might have imagined
lapping up 3 wickets in the first over.
 |
| Raja picked up 3 wickets in the 1st over |
Opener Maneesh, stunned by a slow and loopy delivery
first ball of the match, swatted wildly at the unexpected offering, only to see
his mistimed effort pocketed safely by Mukul at deep mid-wicket. Nitin skied a
simple catch to mid-off two balls later, and Himanshu was bowled trying to play
a pull off the last ball of the over. After the 1st over, TCS were 1
/ 3.
Seamer Manav began the next over with 7 wides,
including one that flew to the boundary, before surprising Asheesh with a
yorker that clanged into the stumps. There was murmur and chaos in the dugout,
and Parveen padded up hastily and walked out to the middle clearly nonplussed. Manav
gifted another 8 to the total from wide balls including another wayward
delivery that raced, uncontested, to the boundary. After 2 bizarre overs, HDFC
had picked up 4 wickets and conceded 15 wides.
Parveen
Consolidates, Sant Ram Keeps the Pressure on TCS
The wild start was followed by a quiet phase as Vikram
and Parveen made survival their priority. However, just as the partnership
began to look promising with a couple of smacks to the boundary, another crazy
moment followed. Parveen top edged Manav to cover in the 9th over,
where Raja grabbed the ball awkwardly, before juggling and then finally
spilling it. The batsmen, in the meanwhile, stood ball-watching, before hastily
deciding to go for a single. The misunderstanding gave Raja time to throw to
the keeper, who whipped the bails with Vikram short of the crease.
Left-arm spinner Sant Ram, one of the most experienced
campaigners in our tournament, struck a double blow in the 12th to
leave TCS reeling. The first reflected his superlative presence of mind. Parveen
played the ball straight back to the bowler, who blocked it in his
follow-through and flicked it back between his legs to catch a shocked Rohit
short of his ground at the non-striker’s end. Parveen’s promising innings of 24
came to an end four balls later as he holed out to Amritpal at long on. At 53 /
7, the TCS innings spelt disaster.
Sumit
Turns the Game with Match-winning Knock
 |
| Avinash (l) hands Sumit (r) the Man of Match award |
Jagdeep now walked out to join the hard-hitting Sumit,
and watched from the other end as his partner turned the game around in 5
overs. Sumit unleashed his full range of strokes, beginning with a straight six
off Gurjeet, the first of the innings, in the 13th. He followed it
up with another big swing off Sant Ram in the next, and fortune was with him as
the fielder at deep mid-wicket spilled the mis-timed shot and watched it clear
the fence. Sumit was gifted another life in the next, as Amritpal dropped a
simple catch at long on.
HDFC ended up paying the ultimate price for those
missed chances, as Sumit went on to contribute 48 out of 133, and put the game
beyond his opposition’s reach. Inclined to hit straight through the line of the
ball both sides of the wicket, he picked the spinners for a series of
boundaries, before launching into Manav in the 17th with a four over
extra cover and a straight six. Jagdeep contributed twin boundaries of his own
from the other end, as they got 20 from the over and the score motored to 115.
Jagdeep and Sumit were both finally picked up by Sant Ram in the next over off
consecutive deliveries, both caught by Gurjeet at long off. Their match-turning
partnership was worth 63 off 33 balls. TCS put on a challenging total, in spite
of Raja’s 9/3 (4), and Sant Ram’s 24/3 (4).
TCS
Bowlers Exert Chokehold
Sumit and Jagdeep followed up their excellent
partnership with another one, this time with the new ball. The two seamers
delivered 5 overs of faultless precision, conceding only 19. They kept Sant Ram
and Raja on a tight leash with an off-stump line and a full, aggressive length.
Leg spinner Maneesh finally broke through in the 7th over, with Raja
caught by Nitin at cover after an uncomfortable contribution of 4 from 18
balls.
Dharminder walked in, clearly aware that his
partnership with Sant Ram held the key to the match. It was not to be his day,
however, as left-arm spinner Parveen snapped him up and then Arun off
consecutive deliveries picked out of cricketing dreamland. Both balls pitched
on a good length and turned past the bat to take the top of off-stump. HDFC
went into the halfway mark at 37 / 3, staring at defeat. To their credit, none
of the TCS bowlers let up the pressure at any point.
Sant Ram looked promising in patches, stroking the ball
well, but without support from the other end or easy boundary balls from the
bowlers, he never managed to find the momentum to launch a serious challenge.
He was finally the 5th wicket to fall, when he was dismissed by
seamer Avinash for 30 in the 15th over. HDFC wrapped up their chase
at an underwhelming 96. All the bowlers contributed equally, and Sumit was
easily the star of the show for the winning side, with 48 and figures of 4 – 1
– 19 – 0. For HDFC, Raja was the Star Performer for his standout bowling performance.
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