TROJAN CRICKET CLUB

Panthers tame Tigers by 79 runs.

The Pinkies finally got their mojo back last Friday as they took care of business against an inexperienced Trojan Tigers squad. Tiger's skipperSagar Agarwal won the toss and elected to field. Nausher, looking to play an over ambitious drive missed one from Arjun Sonkia, but Aayush Ghandand Sushil Premjani made amends by thrashing the opening bowlers. Aayush (19 off 11) hit 2 sixes of the 1st 2 balls he faced to add on to his aggressive innings from Game 1. Sushil (33 off 21) played yet another trademark aggressive innings and punished anything loose. Khushnu made her debut at Cromwell with some impressive hits around the park. The tigers found it really tough to bowl straight at her and gave up 2 no balls/1 wide in the over. Kamalpreet Singh Kalsi (6 off 3) and Ankur Saxena (6 off 6), both started off looking promising but were dismissed by some fantastic catching - Aditya Shah and Manohar Mandalapu took brilliant catches to get rid of the dangerous duo. Skipper Tarun Sandhujoined Gaurav Mathur with the PP innings sputtering at 96/6 in 10 overs. The duo ran aggressively between wickets and punished any loose offerings from the Tigers. Mathur was in fascinating touch and it was a treat to watch his lofted drives and pulls. He posted the tournament's top score so far with 72 off 33 balls with 6 hits over the fence. Sandhu complemented him with a fiery 32 off just 16 balls as the partnership scored 100 runs in just 6 overs. Panthers ended up with a formidable 198/6 in 15.4 overs. Sanjay Singh and Sagar Agarwal were the pick of the bowlers for TT.

The Tigers started with a ferocious onslaught as Gaganjot Singh played a few brilliant strokes to take advantage of the powerplay restrictions. After pulling a mysterious muscle in his groin region, he had to retire andSiddharth Thakur (29 off 13) took over as "Blaster-in-chief". Siddharth played some great shots around the park and the Tigers seemed to be in command. However, Yuvraj Talwar, making his debut for the Pinkies, got one to nip back in to dislodge the stumps and getting the breakthrough.Tarun got a double strike in the next over and dismissed Gaganjot (26 off 10) and Aditya Shah to put the pressure back on the Tigers.The Popovich spin twins - Mayur Shah and Sushil Premjani took over the game in the middle overs and dismantled the Tigers middle order. Vikram Sundarrajtook a great running catch at Long off to get rid of Tigers' skipper Sagar, and Sushil got rid of Naveen (18 off 18). The duo bowled 5 overs for a 34 runs and picked off 3 key wickets, making a decent case for a bigger role for spinners at Cromwell. However, Yuvi (3/36) was the pick of the bowlers and he swung the ball both ways to pick up 3 important wickets in his 1st game of the season. He also took 3 catches to add to his performance. The Tigers ran out of ammunition and could only manage 119 off 12.4 overs.

Gaurav Mathur and Yuvraj Talwar were the key performers for the Panthers. Next up are the undefeated Leavy Lions and the Panthers will be looking forward to some more exciting action. Fight On..!