Winning streak comes to an end
160 off 30 overs is not hard for the Engineers to achieve, given their current form. Alas! That was not to be the case when they played against the Lala on Sunday, September 30. Their innings, uncharacteristically, folded up for 60 off 17 overs. The Lala, whom the Engineers had defeated two months ago, thus had a sweet revenge.
After arriving late at the ground and then winning the toss, Lala captain Aslam had no hesitation to elect to bat first. Although Ashok Kumar was able to provide a break-through for the Engineers in the 4th over of the match by clean bowling the opener, Lala progressed steadily, thanks to 5 dropped catches and then some loose bowling by this correspondent and Sanjeed Sahoo, conceding 50 runs in 4 overs between them.
For the Engineers, Santosh Ghadge was outstanding claiming 3 wickets in a 4 over spell while conceding only 9 runs. An apt reward for a man who really worked hard for it. Well done, Santosh. The other notable contribution towards the fag end of the match came from Dinesh Tashildar who claimed 2 wickets in two overs while conceding only 4 runs. Lala 159 all out in 29.2 overs.
The late arrival didn’t deter the Lala captain to ask his opposite number to start their innings after a 10 minutes innings break. The reason: A marriage to attend! In the hurry to make their opposition attend their marriage the Engineers started gifting their wickets away. While 6 of them collected valuable ‘ducks’, Balu as usual provided some entertainment with a stroke filled knock of 37. None of the other batmen reached the double figure. The Engineers’ innings came to a tame end when the last man Ashok Kumar was stumped off Sheikh with the score at 60.