Comprehensive win for Strikers

Something rare happened in RCC this weekend. If you are thinking about Strikers chasing the target without any last minute drama, then you are wrong.

Avinash Gudapati won the toss which is a rare feat during his strikers captaincy. It also came during a situation where toss played a huge role as the pitch was wet and ball was skidding.

Winning the toss, Strikers opted to bowl and utilized the conditions perfectly. Nukul Jain opened the bowling and he gave no chance for the batsmen to free their arms. Complementing him on the other end was Mahidhar Mullapudi, who bowled equally good and picked up 3 wickets in 3 consecutive overs. At the end of 8 overs, Punjab Kings were 25/4 with Mahi picking up 3 wickets and Nukul picking up a wicket and conceding only 11 runs in his 4 overs.

Strikers struggled a bit after that as they could not get rest of the wickets quickly. Udaybirsingh Walia and Bilal Qurbani of Punjab Kings tried to stabilize the innings and built a partnership of 71 runs in 51 balls. Punjab Kings were 91/4 at the end of 15 overs and were looking to accelerate the innings from there.

As usual, Kishore Kumar Kolipaka comes to the rescue and breaks the partnership in the 16th over. Udaybirsingh was trying to go over the long on but he misses and Kishore cleaned him up with a beautiful delivery. Avinash gets another settled batsmen out in the next over and that was the final nail in the coffin for Punjab Kings. Punjab Kings were 102/6 by the end of 17 overs.

In the next 2 overs, Punjab Kings lost 3 wickets all by runout as they were trying to steal quick runs and strikers who are always on their toes made sure they dint get any easy runs. Last wicket was a classic display of legspin by Akilesh Ganesan . He looped the ball in the air, spun it away from the batsmen. Batsmen left the crease and tried to hit it over and misses. Our keeper Sathya Singh collects the ball cleanly and does the rest. At the end of the innings, Punjab Kings could only manage 115/10 in 19.1 overs.

[Game Picture]

Strikers got off to a flying start by scoring 10 runs in first 5 balls but a controversial LBW decision ended Meghnath Reddy innings very early. That could not stop the strikers as the duo of Mahi and Ravi Singh kept attacking the bowlers and took the game away from the opposition much sooner. Both hit some amazing sixes which were delight to watch. Mahi got out in the 9th over before contributing to a 54 run partnership with Ravi Singh. Avinash joined Ravi Singh and both made sure opposition dint get any kind of momentum from the last wicket. Ravi Singh got out in 12 over after scoring 30 runs and that triggered one of the strikers bad habits of making boring games interesting.

Divyesh Ahir who came in after Ravi Singh's wicket got out in the same over as well. To make it even more interesting, Avinash got out in the 15th over after scoring 21 runs off 16 deliveries. While majority of the Middle order was inclined towards making the game interesting, Madhu Paruchuri had different plans. He played some beautiful shots over the point, covers and scored a quickfire 20 off 12 deliveries. Madhu and Krishna Chaitanya Ambadipudi stayed until the end and got the job done for strikers.

Eventually Strikers chased the target in 15.3 overs and placed themselves comfortably in 3rd position of Group A.

Highlights

Tight bowling from Strikers for the most part of the innings.
Attacking display of batting from Strikers especially in the powerplay
Awesome running between the wickets while chasing
Amazing Knock by Madhu.

Kishore Kumar Kolipaka

Kishore Kumar Kolipaka joined Bellevue Cricket Club in 2018 and has played for all 4 club teams, captaining multiple squads. When he's not dominating matches for the Strikers, Blasters, Chargers, or Smashers, Kishore works as a Data Engineer at Amazon

Comprehensive win for Strikers