With the battle for top 4 spots in the R.P. Singh memorial cup intensifying, two of the contenders Challengers Metro CC (CMC) & TKC Mavs squared off in a crucial game played at the Cibubur Cricket ground on 12th December.
CMC won the toss and chose to bat first and were pegged back right away as the tournament’s leading bowler Nimesh Shah stuck in his very first over. Arun Pandi & Sahil Malik decided to see off the Nimesh threat and this meant that the score was only 48 for 1 at the end of 9 overs. Things got worse when Vijay Pandey took two wickets in his very first over including that of Kirubasankar for a rare duck. TKC Mavs would definitely have been the happier side at the drinks break. They kept chipping away after the break and except for the 14th & 15th overs which went for 32 runs (including 3 consecutive 4s by Hariharasudhan), CMC were never allowed to accelerate and ended at a below par 132 for 7 in their 20 overs.
The CMC opening bowlers were on song when the chase began with Karthigaideepan bowling restrictive lengths and Jagan getting the very dangerous Padmakar Surve out in his very first over. This meant that TKC were way behind the required run-rate as they could only manage 21 for 2 in the first 6 overs. Jagan then too more wickets in his 3rd over to make things even worse. All the other CMC bowlers also kept up the pressure and Jagan came back to claim his fiver and wrap TKC Mavs up for just 88 in their 20 overs.
