Ceylon CC prevailed over Mavecrics CC in a last ball thriller as they won by just 1 run in their T20 game on Sunday. After electing to bat first, Ceylon was in familiar opening trouble having lost 2 wickets for just 10 runs. Mufasil was starting to open up when Neetesh Pansare struck twice and Ceylon needed their middle order to step-up again. Baba Sivasankaran continued his rich vein of form and support from Justin Matthew ensured Ceylon finished a decent score of 136.
The young Neetesh Pansare was the glue of the Mavecrics CC reply and his partnership with Pradeep Patnaik had set up a good platform. But cautious batting had meant that the asking rate had climbed to almost 9 runs an over in the 12thover and wickets started to fall in the quest for quick runs. Neetesh struck some crucial boundaries and Mavecrics would have felt confident needing just 6 runs in the last over.
Enter, the wily, Dihan Silva, who put up his hand to bowl the last over. Samir fell off the first ball, Harshad gave the strike back to Neetesh of the next ball who could only manage another single. Four runs needed off the last 3 balls and Neetesh got the strike back, but Dihan got Neetesh off the 5thball, edging behind to give Baba, his 4thcatch of the game and only a single was possible of the last ball giving Ceylon an unlikely win.
