Sixathon at the Maidaan

 From the desk of Dhruv..

A beautiful, warm morning made a perfect setting for the 6th official of the season with Infernos leading 4-1. The day saw the best turnout of the season with 23 players turning up and the return of Viking's prodigal son Aashish after almost a year.

Shiten won the 14th toss in a row for the Infernos and put the vikings into bat. Sameer and Piyush came into open with Aditya opening the bowling. Sameer got out bowled 1st ball with Kings coming in next. The next three overs between Aditya and Pranav were an exhibition of beautiful spin bowling with Kings getting out to a full toss and Vikings found themselves in similar terriory at 10/2 after 3 overs. 

Chaitanya came in next and the next 4 overs, he and Piyush gave the innings some momentum with Chaitanya hitting a beautifully timed 6 in between. Piyush got out in the 6th over, caught behind(?) of Sushmit. At 34/3 after 7 overs and 8 overs to go, Infernos had the innings in a chokehold but nobody imagined what was to come.

We all know that Hari is a good (great) batsman but what we witnessed today was a different level. The timing was exquisite and the usual shots which land in the middle of the tennis court were going directly into the pool. No bowler was spared and the next four overs, Hari with Chaitanya's able support accelerated the innings to 73 in 11 overs. 

Special mention- HK blowled a killer over in the middle getting Chaitanya, Aashish out bowled on back to back balls.

This is where Shiten chose to roll the dice with Hari and Sathya on the crease. He setup a juicy contest of father vs son, timing vs spin and it almost worked but Viks who is one of the safest catchers dropped a rare oufield catch of Pranav's 2nd ball.

There was no looking back after this and Hari unleashed a flurry of sixes after the missed chance. By the time he was done, he had taken Vikings to 106 in 14 overs with 6 sixes in the innings and a flurry of boundaries. 

With all other batsmen playing around Hari, the Infernos were set a formidable total of 115 in 15 overs.

2nd innnings-

AK sir and Vikram gave the infernos a terrific start (AK hit Dhruv out of the attack by taking 14 off the first over). They made 33 in the first three overs and it seemed like Infernos were well on their way with plenty of batting to follow. This is where captain cool Sathya stepped in and made crucial blowing changes with Piyush, Sameer bowling one of their best spells.

They took 2 wickets in the next two overs (one brillinat runout of AK sir by Aashish) and the Vikings pulled back keeping the Infernos at 35/2 after 5 overs.

With HK at the crease and Samir to follow it was still anybody's game. HK looked ominious hitting a six and a couple of boundaries but Sameer had the last laugh. HK miscued a full and wide ball high into the air behind the wicket. This was a tough chance on the basketball court but it was Hari's day and he pouched it with relative ease.

Samir was in next and tried to stabilise the innings but he got out caught off Sameer and the Vikings were truly in control now. Sushmit, Shitendra both got good starts and were hitting the ball well but wickets kept falling regularly thanks to tight bowling between Sameer, Arjun and Sathya backed by some excellent fielding, catching by Kings, Aashish.

Special mention- Kings saving a boundary at the edge with a well timed kick and Aashish's diving catch of Sathya's bowling.

With 23 to get off the last 3 overs and Viks, Anand, Pranav still left, the Vikings knew that they couln't take things for granted. Arjun exorcised his demons of Match 4 by balling an excellent 14th over getting 2 wickets and finishing the game for the Vikings

Final result- Vikings won by 17 runs

MoM- Hari