Rajajinagar crush IISc, top pool

25th August, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: With both teams coming into the match having pocketed four straight wins each, this match was supposed to be the clash of the titans in the pool-C of the KSCA IV Division league 2012. But Rajajinagar Cricketers simply outplayed IISc Gymkhana in all three departments to win the match by a resounding six wicket margin thus topping the pool. However, both teams make it to the Super League stage which starts tentatively in mid-September.

Rajajinagar won the toss and again resorted to their familiar strategy of putting the opposition in. The initial overs produced some absorbing cricket that included some hits and misses interspersed with some classic strokes from Kiran (59 off 66 balls) and Ashith (14 off 21 balls). But Ashith fell in the eighth over to a freak dismissal when a Kiran straight drive flicked the bowlers fingers before hitting the stumps on the non-strikers end. That opened the proverbial flood gates as wickets fell in a pile including a couple of close calls that went against the home side. In all the previous matches, IISc's top four batsmen had been doing the job, with the lower-middle order batsmen hardly getting a hit in the middle. And when they did finally get the chance, they were found woefully short of the mark, barring the glistening exception of Raviteja, who was stranded on an unbeaten 47 coming off 59 deliveries.

The visitors were rocked early in their chase when Varun castled Bharath in the very first over with one that swung in. But Fahad (23 off 19 balls) and Mudassir (71 off 65 balls) kept attacking the IISc bowlers thus scoring at a fast clip. Fahad edged one to second slip in the tenth over to revive IISc's hope of a fight back. The third wicket alliance of Mudassir and Sagar (42 off 60 balls) however batted solidly almost taking Rajajinagar home but for a couple of late dismissals at the fag end of the innings. The only bright spot in IISc's bowling was Arindam's luckless spell of 10-0-39-0 where he beat the bat and induced edges on umpteen occasions yet went wicketless.

Brief scores: (50 overs match)

IISc - 157 all out in 35.5 overs

(Kiran 59, Raviteja 47*;

Sagar 7.5-0-27-3, Shree Kumar 7-0-20-2, Balaji 6-0-32-2)

Rajajinagar Cricketers - 158/4 in 29 overs

(Fahad 23, Mudassir 71, Sagar 42*)

Result: Rajajinagar Cricketers won by 6 wickets

Man of the match: Sagar

In the newspapers:
"Deccan Herald"