Hawkes Vs Arslan (12/4/11)

The match against Arslan was the last one of the round-robin group and an important one. It was going to decide whether we would qualify for the Platinum or would slip into Gold. Winning was a must but we also needed a good DRR, just to be on the safer side. Don won the toss and elected to field which turned out to be a good choice in the hindsight.

We started off very well with Don picking wicket off the first delivery. Next in was Aleem, the left-hander who was swinging at every delivery and thankfully didn't connect a single one. A lot of credit goes to the bowlers here who bowled strict line and length. Finally, Ashish put an end to his misery. Sagar K. had earlier dropped a fairly easy catch of Intesar but Sachin helped to ease his guilt by claiming Intesar's wicket soon after that. The first 10 overs were so tight that Arslan only managed 22 odd runs. After 10 overs we started to drift a little and Arslan took advantage of that and started getting runs. Some clean hitting by Arshad off Srini's bowling helped them reach 75.

Sachin and Srini opened for Hawkes. The idea there was to get a RH/LH combination. They both gave a good start. After Srini was caught on long on, Ravin went 1 down. Arslan took Bowling PP, which was shrewd thing to do with the new batsmen in. To our pleasant surprise, Ravin didn't hold back. He took advantage of the PP and repeatedly hit over the infield to get ones and twos. After Ravin's wicket, Don promoted himself in an attempt to improve the DRR. He justified that move by scoring 10 of 7 deliveries. Sachin played some good shots on the off until he was involved in a freak run out dismissal. In the dug out, we unanimously blamed Don for his dismissal ;). Soon Don got out in an attempt to hoist another 6. In the end, Shreenath and Anil took us home safely.

Sachin was adjudged MOM for his 2 wickets and 16 runs. On the same day, with Aryans beat Fighting Clan and some other favorable results, we managed to sneak into Platinum group.

Go Hawkes !!!