Rain was threatening to wash out the game as the Indian XI chose to bat first against the Australian XI in the 2017 edition of the Annual Kangaroo-Curry cup played at the Cibubur cricket ground on Saturday. The Aussies soon encountered a much bigger threat as Pallav Malhotra, decided to take his new 20-grain bat for a spin. The other opener, Harish Tiwari didnt even get to face a ball for 3 overs as Pallav laid into the Aussie attack. Harish went early, caught in front while shuffling. William decided to de-risk the other end as Gordon Jones (1/29) brought back some control.
Pallav at the other end, blazed away with some fabulous off-side strokeplay, reaching his hundred in just the 15th over of the innings. Ben Corbett finally got him out when he mistimed a pull, a rare occurence on a day when he hit 14 fours and 6 Sixes to get 115 in just 65 balls and in the process, give his new bat a really good knocking-in.
Kirubasankar (35 of 16 balls) & Arun Rajain (18 of 8 balls) hit a few more sixes as the Indian XI ended up with 213 for 3 wickets in their 20 overs. The curry had been cooked and one had to wait and see if it was Spicy enough for the Aussies.
Ben Burgess (18), got going early on but wickets to Harish Tiwari at the other end and score-board pressure made Ben tickle a feather to William Noronha off the bowling of Jagdeep Singh. Bob Plath couldnt hit the fence, but kept the score ticking over with singles, when heavy rain rain interrupted play. The clouds relented, but the Indian bowling didnt as David Surjit got a couple more wickets to have the Aussies in further trouble.
Another heavy downpour & a wet pitch forced play to be called off with the Aussie XI at 92/6 after 12 overs needing another 121 runs with just 8 overs left. India XI won the game on a better run-rate, thus retaining the Kangaroo-Curry cup.
Thanks to Suresh Subramanian & Faheem Muhammad for umpiring the game.
