Responsibility shown all around in batting, bowling and fielding gave us our first win in the RP Sharma tournament against Horizons, and kept us in the hunt for the semis of this tournament. The win was important for us as we needed to keep ourselves motivated for the finals of Lawson Memorial.
Winning the toss, wicky decided to bat first in order to give some batting practice to our batsmen. Bilal and Nisar opened the batting. Bilal's short stay at the crease was torturous to say the least. He seems to be having some technical difficulties in posture, shot selection and shot execution. But then all these things go un noticed when a batsman does the most basic thing right i.e. hitting the ball in the gap and running like crazy. Rizwan can be rated as another anomaly when it comes to technicalities but no matter how he stands he knows where the gaps are and he does hit the ball in them. I am sure Bilal too would realize that the best advice he can take would be from himself and would somehow figure out how he can do the basics right.
Nisar continued to build on his batting form and continued on his merry ways but his running (or rather jogging) between the wickets felt way short of expections. 3s were converted into 2s and 2s into 1s. His innings was a mixture of sweetly timed power shots and some deft touches for singles and doubles. In the end he top scored for the team and for the match by reaching the 70s and would have been much closer to the as yet elusive 100 runs, if we had been more aggressive in running between the wickets.
Samir Bhai came 1 down after Bilal came back and seemed to time the ball from the word go. His flicks and cuts were a treat to watch and his running between the wickets was like fresh air. In the end he flicked one to the fine leg boundary only to get caught. The shot was on but unluckily he found the fielder.
Adnan was next in and seemed to be a bit stuck in his crease. In the end got bowled out. Akmal came after Adnan and laid the match winning partnership with Nisar. Akmal sweetly timed 3 sixes over the long boundary. Both Nisar and Akmal batted responsibly while always keeping an eye on the run rate. It was a very mature partnership and took the team to the much needed comfort zone. Akmal scored his first 50 for Agility. Eventually Nisar played a tired looking pull shot and was bowled. Wicky went next in and tried to keep the momentum for the remaining few overs, but got out as he played one in the air.
Rizwan went in after Wicky and joined Akmal. Both managed to take the score to 195 in 25 overs without any further jitters. The ground was tricky as the pitch was on a slope and we reached a good score courtesy responsible innings from Nisar, Akmal and Samir Bhai.
Bowling was a bit tricky on this pitch as well and their batsmen came strongly at us. Their batting and our bowling seemed closer to a boxing match. Where both boxers are strong and landing punches on each others faces. A six there, a 2 run over here, a few boundaries there and a wicket here. That continued for most of the match till in the end our punches were more frequent and more lethal.
Anees Bhai and I started the bowling. Anees Bhai was a bit expensive as he came up the slope and against the wind to bowl, whereas I too had a mixed early spell, but managed to get a wicket. The wicket was courtesy brilliant fielding from Khurram which allowed me to give away only 2 runs in my 2nd over. This made their lethal opening batsman to play squarer which is more risky. In the end he tried to pull a ball, which he could have easily played in the covers, got a leading edge and was caught behind by Rizwan. A lesson to all, that how important good ground fielding can be when it comes to taking wickets.
Wicky and Nisar were first change and did manage to keep things under the lid, but the honors stayed even between bat and ball as at all times their batsmen were close to the required run rate. Their other opening batsmen who seemed to have only one boundary shot, kept playing it to perfection and kept on getting boundaries for his team. But Nisar undid him with his wiley spin and caught him off his own bowling. Meanwhile their 1 down batsmen who also was playing very well on both sides of the wicket, mistimed a full toss from wicky and Nisar took a simple catch. Both Wicky and Nisar bowled 5 overs each on a stretch and kept on dishing variety to the batsmen to prevent things to get out of hand.
Akmal and I, took the bowling from them, and kept things simple, prevented boundaries to build pressure on them, which made fall deeper into abyss. Anees Bhai and Bilal finished off the bowling for us and prevented any further jitters. Rizwan kept well on a tricky pitch, although there were momentarily lapses.
