Cricket: Spin Doctors Cup-Banyan Tree deliver surprise win |24 November 2006

Banyan Tree delivered a surprise win by thumping cup favourites Vijay in an exciting and highly charged match.

Vijay batted first on a flat pitch and opened up solidly with some good top order partnerships.

Aravind Sr, Mukesh Sr and Kaushal all made starts, with only Sohan doing some early damage for the bowlers with 3 wickets for 12. At the half-way mark, Vijay threatened with a big score but the introduction of pace bowler Praveen was an inspired choice as he ripped through the bottom order, claiming 5 scalps in his spell of 5.4 overs. Vijay finished all out for 89.

Most cricket followers have noticed that Banyan Tree have improved a lot this year and their progress could be attributed to the leadership of captain Shane McNally. His highly prepared and enthusiastic team are able to train on a regular basis, and it showed in Sunday’s match with some very good catches and tight fielding.

McNally swapped the batting order slightly, which initially back-fired with recently promoted Sohan falling for a duck. However, with Ajith given the opening position, Biju given the license to smash the bowling and Praveen at number 3, a more stable batting line-up was achieved. The loss of the 3rd wicket brought the powerful Devandran to the crease and he cheered the partisan crowd with some huge cover drives and pulls. Devandran finished with 33 not out as Banyan Tree easily chased the target with 13 overs and 5 wickets to spare.

The win brought huge celebration from the players who were happy to have qualified for the final. It remains to be seen whether the boys of Banyan Tree can display the same mental toughness to win against either Super Kings or Patel Youth in the final.