Washington Cricket Club

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WMCB-Pakistan Stars CC v Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB on Sun 01 Jul 2018 at 11:00 AM
Washington Cricket Club Won By 169 Runs

Match report Washington Bounce Back with a Thumping 169-Run Win over Pakistan Stars

After the 40-over opening weekend debacle against Nova Knights, Washington had a huge hill to climb - both a literal and a figurative one - to get their 40-over campaign back on line. WMCB had announced Oxon Hill, once the pride and joy of WMCB, was open for hosting games as well - which it was minus one small problem. Someone forgot to tell the contractors hired to do the work that cricket is not played on a wicket that is elevated like a baseball mound and that the length of the wicket is 22 yards, not 23.5 or whatever arbitrary number that was selected. Despite the grumblings and strategizing on how not to break a leg, the umpire called Kal in for the toss, spun the coin and asked Pakistan Stars what they wanted to do. Given the extremely hot day, a concrete wicket which was not going to deteriorate over the next 7 years, Pakistan Stars made the shocking choice of electing to field. Needless to say, none of the Washington players were complaining from the bleachers underneath the tree.

Ashu and Madhu opened the inning for Washington, and looked solid from the get-go. An uncharacteristically heavy outfield clogged the run flow but some wayward bowling from the Pakistan Stars bowlers kept the scoreboard ticking enough for the batsmen not to panic. An uneventful spell of overs led to the first water break with the score at 43 for no loss. Right after the break though, Ashu (11 off 37) charged the spinner and missed the ball to get bowled and give Pakistan Stars their first wicket. Rushi (4 off 13) looked good during his brief stay at the wicket but missed a straight ball to be adjudged LBW. Ankur joined Madhu with the score at 53/2 in 14.1 overs. For an inning that had only seen 1 boundary in 14 overs, it seemed like a switch was flipped and runs began to flow. The next four overs saw 3 balls deposited into the trees and a couple of boundaries to push the run rate. Madhu (42 off 51) was looking well set for a half-century but played an ill-advised hoik to be dismissed. Ankur (19 off 17) followed soon after when he mishit a full-toss straight down long off’s throat. At the second water break, Washington’s scoreboard read 97/4 in 19.4 overs. Washington dug a hole in the next few overs. Soft dismissals for Shaswat (7 off 9), Arjun (8 off 11), Viral (3 off 10) and Harsh (0 off 3) in quick succession reduced Washington to 144/8 in 27.3 overs. Kalyan, who had already launched 2 big sixes, seemed to be playing a lone warrior’s role and appeared key in Washington’s quest for a decent total or batting out the allotted overs. Those hopes faded away as Kalyan (29 off 24) skied one and was dismissed. At 161/9 and wickets tumbling regularly, Pakistan Stars decided to forego the water break despite the high temperature. And for a moment everyone could see the logic behind that approach, as Washington’s last pair - Monil and Sonu - tried their best to get run out only to be let down by the fielding. However, what followed was pure carnage. Both Sonu and Monil were watchful but ruthless on everything they sensed could go to the boundary. For the next few overs, a pattern of singles, dots and the occasional boundary or a six persisted. But in the 34th over Monil expressed his love for Brandon’s bowling by hitting three sixes in three different directions and collecting 20 runs off the over. The next 3 overs went for 36 runs and culminated in Monil raising his bat to acknowledge a 50 from number 11. The pair collected a run-a-ball over the next 3 overs to shepherd Washington to 258/9 in 40 overs - a partnership of 97 runs for the last wicket. Monil and Sonu remained unbeaten on 59(32) and 40(37), respectively. Pakistan stars were bamboozled and drained.

Despite two left-handers opening the inning for Pakistan Stars, Washington’s total-defense began in usual fashion. A routinely disciplined maiden over from Ankur, one to match from the other end by Sonu, and what usually results in stringing 11 good balls together - a wicket off the 12th ball for Sonu. Ankur could’ve had one in the next over but the chance went down in gully. However, both Ankur and Sonu persisted with the line and length and gave almost nothing to the batsmen to capitalize. Sonu picked up his second wicket in the 8th over off a frustrated shot that was caught well by Viral at mid off. To the dismay of Pakistan Stars, scoreboard read 12/2 in 8 overs. Spinners, Madhu and Viral, were brought into the attack and before you knew they had reduced Pakistan Stars to 44/8 in 17.4 overs. Madhu was the chief destroyer, picking 4 for 19. While not in the spotlight, Kalyan and Ashutosh held on to two great catches to support the bowling. Arjun came in to replace Viral and got some stick from Abrar, going for 23 in 2 overs. Madhu failed to pick a 5th wicket but finished his spell with the figures of 8-0-30-4. Sonu replaced Madhu and sent the off-stump of the number nine batsman tumbling immediately. Viral then tempted Abrar to leave his crease and Harsh was too quick to take the bails off, put Pakistan Stars out of their misery and get Washington out of the sun,

This was a comprehensive win by Washington, who were leaps and bounds ahead in all departments. However, the batsmen need to take more responsibility when posting a total as an opportunity to post a huge total was almost squandered. The highlight was obviously the last wicket partnership between Monil and Sonu. It was thoroughly entertaining. Sonu has an edge over Monil for the man of the match for his 40(37) and 6-2-13-3.

Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
4nb 31w 1lb 
for 9 wickets
36
258		        
Ashutosh Gairola Bowled  11 37 29.73 2
Madhu Reddy Caught  42 51 2 2 82.35
Rushi Patel Lbw  4 13 30.77
Ankur Saini Caught  19 17 1 1 111.76
Shaswat Sekhar Caught  7 9 77.78
Arjun Varma Caught  8 11 1 72.73 1
Kalyan Musani Caught  29 24 2 2 120.83 1
Viral Patel Caught  3 10 30.0 1
Harsh Pareek Caught  0 3 0 2
Sonu Singh Not Out  40 37 5 1 108.11
Monil Patel Not Out  59 32 1 7 184.38

WMCB-Pakistan Stars CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

WMCB-Pakistan Stars CC Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 2w  
for 10 wickets
3
89 (27.4 overs)		     
Brandon Perera lbw Prabhjot 0
Shakila Rathnayake ct Ashutosh G b Viral P 22
Muhammad Khalid ct Ashutosh G b Prabhjot S 4
Ameer Ali b Madhu R 6
Zahid Ali* ct Arjun V b Madhu R 2
Muhammad Shafi ct Kalyan M b Viral P 3
Majid Inayet lbw Madhu R 2
Ali Cheema b Prabhjot S 18
Khizar Hussain st Harsh b Madhu R 2
Abrar Ali st Harsh b Viral P 24
Umar Riaz Not Out  3

Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ankur Saini4.01700.001.75
Sonu Singh6.021334.332.17
Madhu Reddy8.003047.503.75
Viral Patel7.401635.332.09
Arjun Varma2.002300.0011.50