Strikers Started their Season with an easy win

Strikers Started their Season with an easy win

Full Scorecard

Bellevue Strikers picked up right where they left off in last T40 Season. After a successfull T40 season, strikers put up a similar clas by defeating Seattle Pioneers in their season opener at McCollum park in what was hardly a surprising result. Strikers are simply on another level than their counterpart which was evident right from the start. Seattle Pioneers won the toss and elected to bowl first. Strikers openers gave a steady start by scoring 37 runs without losing a wicket in 5 overs. When we were thinking that the opening pair was looking solid, Raghu got bowled to a good length ball which kept very low. Avinash Gudapati came at no.3 and took his time to settle in while Mahi played some beatiful pull shots for six. At the end of 9th over Mahi was at 34(27) and looking solid but then he got out at deep mid wicket trying to pull another one for a six. Then Varun Sudunagunta came at no 2 and provided a valuable partnership with Avinash where they scored around 45 runs in 5 overs. Varun eventually got out to a keeper catch and Bharath came in next. By then, Avinash got enough time to settle in and started to take the anchor role.Soon enough, Avinash reached his 50 in 35 balls. Varun and Avinash already started accelerating at the start of 10th over but actual fireworks started in 17th over when Avinash scored 3 consecutive sixes in last 3 balls of the over. Strikers scored 66 runs of last 4 over and that included 7 sixes of Avinash's bat. Bharath played a sensible innnings by rotating the strike as Avinash looked on completedly different level. Everything was falling in place for Avinash as he scored his century in the penultimate ball of the last over and he helped the team reach a total of 200.

Just like how Strikers batsmen dominated the first innings, Striker's bowlers too started the 2nd innings in the similar fashion. Opening the new ball, Srikanth got pioneers opening batsmen bowled in the first ball of the first over. Mahi started the 2nd over and he produced the similar result by taking a wicket of the first ball in the second over. After this start, Pioneers never looked like they were in the contest and they eventaully got all out on 47 in 16.2 overs. Mahi and Sunny got 2 wickets each while Srikanth, sai and Avinash grabbed 1 wicket each.

Highlights

Monstrous hitting by Avinash - Avinash already showed in T40 season that he can be a reliable batsmen who can stay long without taking any risks and play freely. but with this match, he also showed that he can blast the opposition if he was placed in the right position. It was a treat to watch him play that kind of innings.
Bowlers were right on money right from the start and there is not even a single loose ball in the entire innings.

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