Tigers Roared

Match Summary of Storm Riders Vs NJ Tigers on 5/02/2010 in Lincoln Park Jersey City

After winning first two matches convincingly the team had developed a lot of confidence on all its players. However the feeling was that the team is yet to face a challenging opponent. Most of the players had a good net practice session at Hillsborough, NJ during the week. It was the first match that played at Lincoln Parks (home ground) at Jersey City. It was a bright sunny Sunday morning and the conditions were really good to play cricket. Storm Riders playing eleven was unchanged from the previous match. After negotiating few ground issues the match started. Karthik was right on calling the toss and elected to bowl first. Though the pitch was good to bat first, the decision was taken to test the batting strength of the team about chasing down a total.

NJ Tigers were off to a bad start. Amjad was the first wicket to fall; he wanted to get off from strike but probably picked a wrong fielder in the ground. It was Rahul with his quick pick up and throw right on top of the stumps where Karthik did the rest to dismiss the batsman. Due to some good catching and fielding by Storm Riders, NJ Tigers top order was completely rattled down. Nishat, Asim, Ridwan and Ahmad went back to the pavilion without disturbing the scorers much. Batsmen had no clues facing Sabeer, Saurabh, Jeeva and Hemchand. Saurabh consistently beat the batsmen and got wickets. Bowlers were really off to a very good start and at once scoreboard read 5 wickets down for 20 runs. NJ Tigers were stunned and had no clues facing the fast bowlers, until their saviors Syed Ahmed and Naveed Azam arrived to the crease. They both literally blocked all the tough balls and ran singles on some easy ones. Jeeva tried all of his deliveries to get a wicket but Naveed used his body instead of bat to play them. Karthik brought himself to bowl and also tried Rahul to break the partnership. After hitting a six of Karthik, Syed lost his wicket at an important time. Saravana the left hander played a little cameo along with Naveed who this time demonstrated that he is capable of clearing the boundaries using his bat. The final six overs proved costly to Storm Riders. NJ Tigers reached a prominent score of 81 for the loss of 7 wickets. They recovered really well after losing their whole top and middle order for nothing.

Karthik and Sriram opened the innings for Storm Riders and were threatened by some decent wicket to wicket bowling by NJ Tigers and they started to roar. Yaser Gul started off very well providing two early breakthroughs getting both Sriram and Prabhu through his excellent Yorkers. Rahul couldn’t resist the bowling and didn’t last long. After three quick wickets, there came the wall of Storm Riders none other than Hemchand. Karthik couldn’t find sweet spots on the bat but rotated strike. Both Hem and Karthik were troubled by some good attacking bowling by Naveed Azam and their captain Ahmad Saeed. Required run rate was climbing up and Karthik tried to clear the boundary and was caught at deep midwicket yards before the boundary that brought Saurabh In. Saurabh was flawless with his batting under pressure, singles were coming at ease but those were not only enough to meet the required run rate. By the time the dug-out started to believe that it is a winning partnership, Hem got out. After making comfortable 18 runs Saurabh was caught by Nishat Islam. NJ Tigers had complete control on the match and they were at driving seat. Storm Riders needed a miracle to get back in to the game but lacked real fire power with the bat. Vishwa tried to make difference but it was too late as the required run rate climbed sky high. Ramesh, Jeeva, Sabeer and Pandi couldn’t do much in the scenario where NJ Tigers rocking with the ball. The match was all over during the final over and Storm Riders were short of 16 runs.

Summary

League - NJSBCL

Match number - 51

NJ Tigers

81/7 in 16 (Syed 25, Naveed 19, Saurabh - 3/20)

Storm Riders

65 all out in 15.3 (Saurabh 18, Karthik 13, Asim - 3/11)

NJ Tigers won by 16 runs.

Man of the Match – Naveed Azam for his plucky 19 with the bat followed by two wickets for 14 runs in 4 overs.

Playing 11 - Karthik*, Sriram, Prabhu, Rahul, Hemchand, Saurabh, Ramesh, Vishwa, Jeeva, Sabeer and Pandi.

Team Form factor

Batting – Below Average

Bowling - Good

Fielding – Below Average

Team Bonding - Average

Intensity – Poor

Match Summary prepared by Karthik Narayanan