Royal Tigers won by 3 wickets

June 21st was supposed to be a rainy day. The forecast suggested that the teams should cancel the match and postpone it for a sunnier day. But by the determination of both of the teams, they decided to give a chance to get the match going with a little rain dripping.

Winning the toss Tigers put Baggies in to bat on a wet pitch, little knowing what was in store for them. In came the opening pair of Mike Glover and Nick Palmer. The two batsmen were hitting the balls with ease to the boundaries, with Palmer hitting a big one for a six off the bowling of Suman Manuel. Mike gave Palmer good company, with the opening pair making 58 runs for the first wicket. Tiger's keeper Sameer dropped an easy one, giving a chance to Mike to make the best of the dropped catch. The very next ball saw the brilliance of Sameer when he caught Palmer behind the wickets - the most spectacular catch of the match. Palmer had by then made a quick-fire 34. The next batsman P. Gamble didn't last long. He fell without scoring to Aman. Mike, on the other, hand kept his cool, taking ones and twos and striking the odd balls to the boundaries. Baggies went into the break scoring 93 runs of the first 15 overs for the loss of 2 wickets only. The break revived the Tigers' energies and soon the Baggies' scorecard read 115 runs for 5 wickets. Tigers put the brakes on Baggies' run-scoring with some tight bowling. After the departure of Mike Glover for a well-made 38 runs with the help of 4 boundaries, Baggies almost collapsed. Had it not been for the brave effort of Mahesh Singh for his well-made 19 runs, Baggies would have been all out within 130 runs. But the final score read 156 runs for 9 wickets, with Tigers allowing only 63 runs of the final 15 overs. Amandeep Singh again showed that he was the most consistent of the Tigers' bowlers, taking 3 wickets in his spell of 6 overs and giving away only 21 runs. Suman was the most expensive of all the Tiger's bowlers, but he was lucky to get a couple of wickets.

Tigers indeed had a tough job on hand, requiring 157 runs to win. No team had ever scored over 130 runs on this Godollo ground and Andrew Leckonby, the Baggies captain, almost thought that he had the match in his pocket. Giving advice to his bowlers to bowl a perfect line, Baggies struck very early in their first 3 overs removing the opening batting pair with the score reading just 6 runs for the loss of 2 wickets. In came the most reliable pair Tigers have had this season, comprising of Tiger's captain Tushar Gandhi and vice captain Sameer Khan. Both the batsmen were hitting the loose balls to the boundaries, keeping the required rate of 5.23 runs per over always under control. Tushar was almost looking in good nick, striking the ball firmly, when one low ball from Dean which kept low got his wicket, clean bowled. The pair had enjoyed a partnership of 51 runs. Tushar made 27 runs with the help of 4 hits to the fence. With the fall of Tushar in came the match hero Vasu Reddy. Sameer, on the other hand, was going great guns, but he did survive a very good appeal of caught behind which the umpires failed to hear. Vasu and Sameer almost did the job for Tigers, putting on 49 runs for the 4th wicket, when suddenly Sameer was trapped plumb LBW in front of the wicket. Sameer's brilliant innings of 40 runs included 7 fours and 1 six to the fence. With another 51 runs required to win off 10 overs, the match could have gone either way. Dean and Abed bowled very well to keep the Tigers' batsmen in check, but a masterly batting performance from Vasu with the help of his batting partner Stan saw Tigers almost reach the required runs when suddenly a fine low catch by Abed off Andrew L. saw the fall of Stan. Tigers were still requiring 10 runs to win with 5 wickets in hand at this stage. There was some panic in the batting room when another 2 wickets fell in quick succession, but Vasu made sure that Tigers reached their target comfortably with 10 balls to spare.

Man of the Match: Vasu Reddy, for his timely unbeaten knock of 39 runs.

With this win Tigers move to top of the league table winning their both league matches. Overall it was a fantastic display of sporting spirits from the teams and both the teams shook hands with each other after the match and enjoyed their game thoroughly irrespective of the result.