Popovich Panthers vs Marshall Sixers match report
Nov 08, 2016 07:08 PM | Popovich Panthers won by 5 wickets | ScorecardPopovich Panthers beat the Marshal Sixers in the 1st qualifier game to storm into the finals of CPL for the 3rd successive time. The PP juggernaut rolled over MS with yet another authoritative win by 5 wickets. The game was intensely fought by both teams but PP outplayed MS in all phases on the game.
Skipper Tarun Sandhu won the toss and put MS into bat. Sandhu and Mukul Sagar gave PP an excellent bowling start in the powerplay as they strangled the MS openers Charan Kilari and Denver Bopaiah for runs. The strategy paid off in the 3rd over as Charan played a loose cover drive and was brilliantly caught by Yash Bazari. Ashish Relan came in to replace Charan and provide some stability to the innings. While Ashish held his ground and played a sensible knock, the rest of the MS batters failed to apply themselves and were well tested by some fantastic bowling by Louis Arokiaraj, Hashir Malik and Kamalpreet Singh Kalsi. The Panthers were dominant with the fielding as well, lead by Rahul Chitkara who inflicted a brilliant run out. MS were staring down the barrel after the 13th over with only 85 on the board. However, a fantastic finish from the experienced veteran Ashish Relan provided respite as he smashed some fantastic shots in the last 2 overs to take MS over the hill for a respectable 117 in 16.2 overs. Ashish scored 53 off 26 balls and was the only MS batsman to reach double figures.
Popovich needing 118 to win started with a bang as their openers Sushil Premjani and Gaganjot Singh were absolutely merciless in their opening onslaught. Sushil took on Ashish in the first over with 14 runs and then followed up with yet another 14 runs in the 2nd over by Faraaz Hussain. PP reached their 50 runs in just 24 balls and Sushil played a dominant knock of 40 off just 20 balls. Kamalpreet Singh Kalsi, wasted no time as he walked in to replace Sushil and dispatched the MS bowlers all over the stadium to score 26 runs in just 8 balls. Gaganjot Singh, fresh from his Vegas trip showed excellent poise to score 26 runs as well. With Popovich needing 17 runs to win off 7 overs, Sandhu retired Kalsi and Gagan and gave the rookies a chance to finish off the game. Akhilesh Chawla and Suvan Sur played with maturity to cap off a dominant win.
Sushil Premjani was declared the Man of the Match with his prolific 40 runs to give PP the brilliant start. Now the Pinkies await the 3 way battle between Cardinal Knights, Trojan Tigers and Marshal Sixers to see whom they will play in the finals on Nov 18th.
Good Luck to all teams.
http://www.usccricket.org/detail/result.cfm?scoreboard=234