Cricket: Mike Holmes Memorial tournament and Deepam Knock-out Cup-Vijay defeat Patel Youth, Royal Titans dismissed cheaply |22 March 2007

In the third match of the Deepam Knock-out Cup, the Vijay team defeated Patel Youth by a narrow 14 runs.

Sporting their recently acquired uniform, Vijay batted first and started confidently against the two Patel quicks Deepak and Vasudev. Captain Patrick Thomas carved out his highest score this year with a well-thought out 19, while Dhiraj and the reliable Kaushal Patel played some good shots to bring up 37 and 24 respectively.

The score progressed at a handy rate until Vinod cleaned up the tail with three lower order wickets for the 'Youth. Two wickets for veteran Vasudev and rarely bowled Lalji, who was fresh from his exceptional batting exploits the weekend before, restricted Vijay to 144 all out – a good score on the small ground in the 25-over match.

In reply, opening Vijay bowler Mukesh, who looks to have picked up a few yards in pace, was virtually unplayable in his opening spell. Some early wickets though brought on the solid partnership of Deepak Kerai and Mukesh for Patel Youth and the match looked to swing their way while they were scoring at the crease.

At the 20-over mark, the ‘Youth looked good, needing 30 runs off the last 5 overs with 5 wickets in hand. But the crucial wicket of Mukesh for 42 off only 28 balls by the evergreen Kaushal Patel swung the match back Vijay's way.

The last five wickets tumbled quickly and the ‘Youth were dismissed in the 23rd over for 131 – 14 short of victory.

Both Patel and Jeevan finished with 3 wickets as Vijay’s undefeated run continues this year.

Royal Titans dismissed cheaply

Meanwhile in the Mike Holmes Memorial Tournament match played at the Roche Caïman playing field, the disappointing Royal Titans once again were dismissed cheaply on their way to a huge 135-run loss to Banyan Tree.

Bouncing back from their loss to Patel Youth the weekend before, the Banyan Boys, minus captain Shane McNally, immediately were on the front foot scoring quickly against the wayward opening Titans bowlers.
Ajith and Shanker both made scores in the twenties as the Titans were pressured into setting defensive fields to try to hinder the free-flowing Banyan batsmen. New recruit John at number three smashed 5 boundaries and 4 sixers on his way to a top score of 60.

All the Banyan Tree boys got starts as the runs continued to add up – eventually dismissed for 206 just short of their allocated 30 overs.

Rajesh bowled well for the Titans with two wickets whilst captain Mukesh was expensive for his three scalps – averaging more than 6 runs per over in his spell.

Wanting to fare better than their lowly 44 runs made in their last match a few weeks ago against the St Anne Kings, the Titans sent in captain Mukesh to attempt to keep the scoreboard turning over. But the only turning over was in the wickets column with no other batsman other than Mukesh and Nithin making over 4 runs.

Mukesh's 26 consisted almost entirely of boundaries, and Nithin at number 8 made 15. There were unbelievable figures by Mahesh for Banyan Tree, finishing with 5 for 1 as all four Banyan bowlers claimed wickets.

The Royal Titans are seemingly unable to find their feet against the other teams and they unfortunately look to take the Spin Doctors’ mantle as the ‘easy beats’ in their first year of existence. It was another huge loss for the Titans, this time by 135 runs.