TROJAN CRICKET CLUB

Qualifier 1: Cardinal Knights Vs Leavey lion Played on 03/31/2017

Cardinal Knights beat Leavey Lions in the 1st qualifier game to storm into the finals of CPL after 2 years. Ck won the game over LL by 27 runs. The game was intensely fought by both teams but CK outplayed LL and stormed into the finals.

Cardinal Knights won the toss and elected to bat first. K Pranav Shashidhar and @sibi gave LL an excellent bowling start in the powerplay as they bowled excellent line and length and strangled the CK openers Prateek Rohela and PaRas Arora. Sibi drew the first blood when he got the wicket of Paras Arora in the 2nd over. Sai Dev came in to replace Paras Arora. Saidev and Prateek held the innings together for CK. Vidyadhara Rao K bowled some excellent deliveries and created pressure on both the batsman. Saidev played a loose shot as he top edged the ball into the sky and @joydeep took a good catch to get rid of him. In came Rana Aijaz, and the whole team of Leavey lions had tension written all over their foreheads. The dangerous pair of Rana Aizaz and Prateek Rohela were in the middle. It was a lucky day for Prateek Rohela as LL dropped him twice and he scored 45 off 39 balls to take CK into a comfortable position from which they can launch and score big runs. Rana Aijaz also came in flying colors and the game was all set to go away from LL but it was Roshan’s double strike which brought Leavey Lions back into the game. He got the wickets of both Rana (20) and Prateek. Prayut Patel scored some good runs in the end and ensured that CK gets past 130. The girl power of CK also came into the picture as both Anshita Jagota and Pooja Sinha ran quickly between the wickets and took the score to 139 at the end of 16 overs. The tension was quite visible on the faces of Cardinal Knights as they were expecting to score more than 150 but Leavey bowlers brilliantly and restricted them to 139.

@Roshan was the pick of the bowlers for Leavey Lions.

The in-form pair of Bhumik Patel and Sahil Shakir opened the batting for Leavey lions but it was a lucky day for Prateek as Bhumik missed a low full toss and got out on the first delivery of the second innings. Cardinals celebrated because they knew how dangerous Bhumik Patel is while chasing. 

Sahil played a loose cover drive and was brilliantly caught by Sumedh. Zahaib Akhtar also bowled some brilliant yorkers to get rid of Shashi Kiran and @muthu. @Vedant held the innings from one end but the bowling pair of Prayut Patel and Vaibhav Oberoi bowled some good line ad/nd length and kept the run rate in control. Vaibhav in particular was impressive and bowled one of the best spells of CPL history. He got two wickets in two consecutive deliveries. @Roshan also scored some useful runs but he was involved in a mix-up with Vedant and a direct throw from Vaibhav Oberoi got rid of him. Rana Aijaz came in and bowled his super express fast deliveries and got two wickets. Leavey lions were bundled out for 112
Vaibhav was the pick of the bowlers for Cardinal Knights.

Prateek was declared the Man of the Match for his 45 runs and 2 wickets . The Knights await the 3 way battle between Popovich Panthers, Marshal Sixers and Leavey Lions to see whom they will play in the finals on April 14th.

Good Luck to all teams.