CU’s HASAN BEMAT (161* in 70 balls, 16x6s, SR 230) DETHRONES SUPER KINGS

It was a beautiful day for cricket as Chicago United went up against the Naperville Super Kings at Commissioner’s Park. Put into bowl first by the opposition, it was a day where not much went right for CU in the field. Raghu grabbed the first breakthrough in the 5th over with the score at 21. It was the very next ball where the Super Kings were caught off guard by an injury to their other opener. This brought Anuj Sharma to the middle with the pressure on the batting side. Unfazed by it all, he put together a superb innings while stitching together a mammoth 3rd wicket partnership of 140 runs with Jai. Anuj’s onslaught finally ended at the hands of Donieke, falling for a brilliant 137 off 74 balls; his dominance no more obvious than by his 13 sixes. His efforts propelled Super Kings to a total of 217, leaving CU with a difficult chase. Donieke was the pick of the CU bowlers with figures of 5-0-3-25. Raghu (1 wicket) and Arnav (2 wickets) were able to chip in despite Arnav being on the expensive side.
As for their reply, CU could not have gotten themselves off to a worse start as they lost Venky, Anirudh, and Rahul cheaply. Skipper Hasan found himself in at #5 much earlier than he would have wanted with the score at 15/3. However, he asserted his dominance and showed his prowess with the bat from the very first ball he faced (a six over midwicket). From then on it was the Hasan Bemat show as the Super Kings bowlers looked clueless at the face of his onslaught. Hasan reached his half-century from just 15 balls! He then motored to his hundred off just 33 balls. And he saw the innings through reaching his 150 of 65 balls while finishing 161 NOT OUT off 70 balls. Ably supported by CU newcomer Shubham (19*) the two formed an unbeaten 125 run partnership for the 4th wicket. What was the embodiment of a captain’s knock, Hasan’s unbeaten 161 helped CU raze down the target in just 26.1 overs.