The Indonesian national team players especially Gamantika & Anjar Tadarus have been in a very rich vein of form and this consistency is helping Yadavas WISCI Tigers take a commanding lead on top of the table in the R.P. Singh memorial T20 tournament.
TKC Mavs won the toss and chose to bowl first in overcast conditions against the Tigers on Sunday at the Cibubur Cricket ground. Nimesh Shah has proven to be very dangerous in his opening spells and he showed why in this game too by accounting for the Tigers openers cheaply.
This brought Gamantika to the crease and he has been displaying a true hunger for runs in this tournament averaging 57 with 5 not-outs in 11 games. More importantly, he has done a great job controlling the middle of the innings by curbing his natural attacking instincts and relying more on 4s than the riskier 6s option.
Gamantika partnered with his fellow Bali team-mate Darma Arta for a 70 run stand which re-built the innings and a last over flourish helped the Tigers finish on 154 for 5 in their 20 overs.
TKC Mavs had in the past chased down these totals and at the break they would have felt confident about doing the same this time around too. The openers found it tough to score against Darma Arta & Muhammad Raihan and TKC Mavs could only manage 32 for 2 at the end of the power play.
This once again meant that Padmakar Surve & Mohit Hotchandani had to re-build in the middle overs while keeping the score-board ticking. They started doing that to ensure no further wickets lost when they went to drinks at 51 for 2. Acceleration was needed and Padmakar Surve hit 2 big 6s in the first over after drinks, but the young Nando junior held his nerve and struck off the very next ball dismissing the dangerous Paddy.
TKC Mavs couldn’t recover after that loss and eventually could only manage 93 for 9 in their 20 overs. The Tigers used 8 bowlers and 7 of them shared a wicket apiece!!
