777 prevail in first ever super-over in Seychelles cricket |26 July 2013
Winning the toss, Patel Youth captain decided to bowl first. 777 openers Krishna and
Upcoming batsmen Suranga and Parthi built on the platform laid by the openers. After Suranga was run out for 23 runs, Vignesh came in and gave Parthi good support with his contribution of 26 runs.
However, the main big knock was played by Parthi who was unbeaten on 61 runs (5 fours and 5 sixes). At the end of the 1st innings, 777 had put on a total of 156 runs for the loss of 5 wickets.
For Patel Youth, Dharmesh picked up 3 wickets for 36 runs whereas Ajit bowled economically, conceding 14 runs in his 4 overs without picking up a wicket though.
The Patel Youth run chase was off to a shaky start losing openers Naresh and Nitin for 1 and 7 runs respectively. Then the upcoming batsmen, Hitesh and Bharat, stabilised the situation, putting on a solid 3rd wicket partnership.
Hitesh was dismissed for 11 runs whereas Bharat smashed 45 runs which included 7 sixes. After the dismissal of Hitesh, the two upcoming batsmen – Vijesh and Paresh – could not get set and were dismissed cheaply.
Patel Youth were back in the game after Dharmesh came in and scored 17 runs, giving Bharat good support. However, there was another twist in the tale after the fall of these two batsmen as Ravinder picked up two wickets in one over including the big one of Bharat.
Ultimately it came down to Sanjay who scored 36 runs dashing 777’s hopes of bowling out Patel Youth who were also given support by Prakash who chipped in with 13 runs.
The match went down to the wire with Patel Youth requiring 4 runs of the last over. The huge task of bowling the last over was given to Sabir. Despite bowling 3 wides in the last over the Patel Youth batsmen facing the last over could not clear the infield or steal a single as the match ended in a tie.
For 777, Seenu was the pick of the bowlers picking up 4 wickets for just 14 runs and Krishna also picked up 1 for 20.
To decide the winners, the match went into the super over where Patel Youth had to bat first. Seenu bowled the super over for 777 conceding only 11 runs which came off Bharat’s bat and picked up the wicket of Dharmesh.
After bowling an economical spell in the 1st innings, Ajit was given the task to defend 11 runs in the super over. Parthi hit a 6 on the first ball of the super over but was bowled by Ajit on the next ball.
After coming in to bat at number 3, Suranga sneaked a quick single giving the strike to Nataraj. Requiring 5 runs to win, Nataraj made the winning runs on the fifth ball of the over by hitting Ajit for a six to win a thriller of a contest for 777.
777 will play the final of the tournament against Vijay ‘A’ on July 28 at the Roche Caïman playing field. The match will starts at 9.30am.
Aritra Das from SCA