THE ‘MEN IN RED’ – UNDEFEATED CASO T30 CHAMPS!

Last weekend, the much awaited championship match and a title clash between Chicago United’s ‘Men in Red’ and Deccan Mavericks began with both the teams showing up early . Both the camps were filled with energy as the ‘Men in Red’ started off their day with a relaxed game of soccer while the Mavericks were in the thick of things with warm ups and huddles early in the day. Chicago United won the toss and elected to bowl first. The Mavericks openers Abhiny and Arjun got off to a steady start in the powerplay scoring at a decent rate before Akhil Pathan got the breakthrough in the 7th over of the innings. Koti Vanga and Aaron Fernandes bowled well in their first spell along with Sami M Khan to keep the scoring rate under 6 runs per over. The scorecard read 84-3 at the end of 15 overs. The Deccan Mavericks captain Karan Kumar steadied the Mavericks ship and accelerated the scoring along with Wayne who scored a quickfire half century. Karan continued his good form in the tournament taking on the CU bowlers to score 89(57)* and took Mavericks to a very challenging total of 250. Aaron Fernandes was the pick of the bowlers picking up 3 wickets. The asking rate for the’Men in Red’ was 8 runs per over from the very beginning. Sachin Veerasammy walked in to open the innings along with Anirudh Jonnavitula who scored close to 400 runs in the tournament. Sachin was positive from the start dispatching a huge maximum over long on in the very first over. Deccan Mavericks got the prized wicket of Anirudh with the very first ball from Ranadeep which tilted the game in their favor. Sachin kept scoring boundaries along with Najmi in the powerplay before Mavericks picked up their second wicket with the score reading 42. Najam Iqbal (Najmi) looked flamboyant with his strokeplay hitting boundaries at ease and picking up quick singles and doubles along with Nikhil Kanchan at the other end who put on a partnership of 87 runs. Chicago United were on par at the half way mark with the score at 117-2 in 15 overs. The match was evenly poised where a couple of wickets could swing the game either way. Satish Reddy got his experience into play to pick up the wicket of Nikhil at a crucial stage of the innings. Najmi brought up his half century and was looking dangerous along with Hasan Bemat who struck massive sixers together accelerating the innings. Mavericks clawed their way back into the game picking the wicket of Najmi with the score at 163-4. Najmi ended his innings with a score of 78 of 62 balls. Hasan Bemat took on the Mavericks bowlers with ease timing the ball out of the fence. Quick wickets at the other end of Dhruv Duggal and Sami shook the CU camp. Koti Vanga came in to the crease and started with an attacking intent from ball one. Hasan Bemat hit two sixers back to back before falling prey to a slow ball that didnt rise up and trapped him in front of the wicket. With 51 needed of the last 5 overs Nadeem William and Koti Vanga had a tough task at hand under pressure of the finals. Nadeem Williams showed no signs of nerves as he cleared the fence at ease. He looked in hurry to finish the innings before he holed out to long on trying to clear the fence yet again. The man with the golden arm Aaron Fernandes joined Koti Vanga and the match went down to the wire. Mavericks needed two wickets to win and the men in red required 25 runs of the last 3 overs. Koti cleared the fence twice in the over to change the equation in CU’s favor. 12 of 18 was well within reach now with Koti taking CU home. Aaron Fernandes played sensibily picking up singles under pressure to let Koti take charge and finished the game scoring the winning runs in the last over to shatter the hopes of Mavericks yet again to win the title against Chicago United. The match was a fitting finale and was a treat to the spectators who turned up in large numbers with famous personalities of Chicago cricket making great memories for Chicago Cricket!