Cricket: Banyan Tree Cup final-Ste Anne Kings win nail biting thriller |09 November 2007

Starting the day at 1-47 and chasing 205 runs for victory, the Kings got off to a terrible start by losing batsman Esar with the very first ball he faced. With the pitch offering a lot more for the bowlers, Luckstars’ paceman Suranga was able to hold a good line and length for most of the day. A good partnership between Kings’ captain Tim Horpinitch and Hari Krishna came underdone with the score on 96, Suranga claiming his second wicket for the day to dismiss Tim for a patient 20 runs. Hari Krishna, however, was proving to be the difference between the two sides as he kept the runs flowing despite Luckstars getting the valuable wicket of Aral cheaply.

At 4 for 150, the match seemed to be swinging the ‘Kings way, until a  somewhat controversial LBW decision went the way of the Luckstars and had Hari Krishnan sent off on his way one short of his half-century. This wicket seemed to spur on the Luckstars who set more attacking fields and dried up a lot of scoring opportunities for the ‘Kings. When Ste Anne batsman Charles was bowled by Suranga after grinding out a well-played 29 runs, victory was heading the Luckstars way.

However, this exciting match still had some intriguing twists and turns to come. At 8 wickets down for 181 runs and still requiring a further 25 runs to win, ‘Kings batsman Santosh was given out lbw second ball, much to the rapture of the Luckstars players who celebrated loudly knowing they were only one wicket away from an amazing win. In stepped Santosh’s brother - Sandesh - for the ‘Kings. He had other thoughts on his mind. Perhaps Sandesh still had memories of the Paradise Cup final against Vijay earlier in the year where he faced the last ball of the match and required 2 to win and got caught out with what was a relatively soft dismissal. Nevertheless, Luckstars’ paceman Saman was given the task to get the final wicket, but cometh the hour, cometh the man, as Sandesh proceeded to single-handedly blast his way to victory with spectacular shots to score  6,6,4,2 and 6 in the one over to draw scores level amid wild celebrations on  the sidelines by the ‘Kings’ players.

When the winning run was scored courtesy of a bye, the ‘Kings’ players rushed onto the ground and celebrated as they had achieved an unlikely victory.

After the formalities of completing the overs for the day in which the ‘Kings made a further 20 runs to finish on 225, Arup Das chipping in with 11 not out, with a partnership of 44 runs for the 10th wicket with Sandesh.

The Luckstars completed the remaining 18 overs to face with the ‘Kings still dominating tearing through 9 Luckstars’ batsmen, Aral taking 5 wickets, which had the ‘Kings winning the match on the first innings score. The prize-giving ceremony was conducted by the general manager of the Banyan Tree Resort, Mr Reinhold Johann, with Suranga claiming the man-of-the-match trophy for his 6 wickets and 55 runs.