Popovich Panthers vs Trojan Tigers match report
Mar 08, 2016 11:22 PM | Popovich Panthers won by 1 wickets | ScorecardThe Popovich Panthers stormed to their 3rd consecutive win after a hard fought victory against the formidable Trojan Tigers. The highlight of the evening was a fiery hattrick by pacer Ashish Relan, who got rid of Ashwin Kumar, Kamalpreet Singh Kalsi and Ankit Harsora in 3 excellent deliveries to turn the tide in favor of the Panthers.
Earlier in the evening, Sagar Agarwal won the toss and elected to bat 1st.Gaganjot Singh and Abhilash Vemulapalli gave TT a solid opening start with both batsmen, looking to score quick. The Panthers quickies, Gaurav Mathur,Tarun Sandhu, Ankur Saxena kept things under check but it was Ravi Lingineni and Goutham A V Kumar, who got the important breakthrough to dismiss the openers. Ankit Harsora, played some delightful shots and punished the loose balls and gave the TT innings a boost. The Tigers seemed destined for a 160 plus total when Ankit was going strong. However, Ashish had some other plans - he got rid of Ashwin to a well judged catch by keeperSushil Premjani, then Kalsi mistimed his 1st ball and hit it straight to long on and Raj Kansagra took a fantastic catch. The 3rd ball was magical, as it swung away from Ankit Harsora and uprooted his stumps. TT never recovered from this triple strike and even though Ronak and Navjot kept at it around 6 rpo, TT limped to 140.
The Panthers, were still not done celebrating Gaurav Mathur's record breaking performance from last week, as Gaurav put his foot down on the accelerator right from the start, including a massive 30 plus run over at the start. With momentum swinging in favor of PP early, TT battled hard to get back into the game. Sushil Premjani, walked in to replace Gaurav and kept up the scoring with some entertaining shots around the park. Former teammate Kamalpreet Singh Kalsi, did not allow the Panthers to cruise to a finish. Looking much fitter than last season, Kalsi bowled with a lot of zip and swing as he sabotaged PP's middle order. With a flurry of wickets in the middle, it was time for the experienced duo of Sandhu and Relan to see PP through. With 32 required off 24 balls, the PP girls - Hima VR and Sruthi Anne, offered the team much needed respite by scoring 7 crucial runs in the girl over to bring the equation down to 25 off 24 balls. TT, running out of bowling options had to turn to veteran Gaganjot Singh to turn his arm. However, Sandhu and Relan pounced on this opportunity and scored at will to close out the target with time and overs to spare.
A well played game by both teams and spectators were treated to some fantastic batting by the lefties Ankit and Gaurav and some fiery pace bowling by Relan. A win on Friday has ensured the Panthers a spot in the semifinals, and they face a young and desperate Leavy Lions squad next week. Things are tightening up in the race for the final 4, with teams hustling for wins to take a shot at the CPL Trophy...! Good Luck to all....