A lot of ball-hunting ensued this Sunday at the Cibubur Cricket ground as the second R.P. Singh Memorial Cup game of the day also saw a bevy of sixes, this time of the bats of Justin Mathew Biji & Hashmatullah as Menara Ceylon CC crushed Challengers Metro CC.
Challengers Metro CC (CMC) won the toss and elected to bowl first and they would have been the happier side after they had Menara Ceylon CC (MCC) in trouble at 38 for 4 which included a double-wicket over to Manickavasagan. Justin Matthew Biji then entered at the fall of the 4th wicket and in just the first 6 balls he faced, he hit 24 runs inclusive of two 6s and three 4s. 28 runs came off that Vimal Mohan over and the best had been unleashed! Justin was in the boundary hitting zone as he raced to 72 off just 34 balls and his hitting also inspired Hashmatullah to unleash some big hits of his own and his unbeaten 41 of just 23 balls helped MCC finish at a mammoth score of 180 runs. Sakthi Narayanan and Manick were the bowlers that emerged relatively unscathed by that carnage with 5 wickets between them.
181 was always going to be tough and CMC got off to a bad start as Roney struck in his very first over. Sawan Malik then got into the act taking three more wickets including that of his son (wonder what the drive home would have been like!!) and soon CMC were tottering at 51 for 5 in the 11th over. The two Sakthis (Sakthi Seelan & Sakthi Narayanan) got together to put on a 71 run stand but even their Combined Shakti couldn’t help as CMC managed only 129 in their 20 overs.
