TROJAN CRICKET CLUB

                         SEMI-FINAL: USC vs Ventura

After losing the toss to Ventura, things got worse for USC as they lost Dushyant and Vishal very early in their innings. Muffid and Yasir bowled brilliantly to get rid of Rana and Rohit and reduce USC to 28/4 in 7 overs. Rakesh and Sandhu steadied the innings but they both got our trying to up the scoring rate. Vinai’s cameo at the end brought USC back into the hunt and got them past 100 to finish up at 114 in 20 overs. The Trojans, who were already shorthanded in the final day without having their 2nd highest scorer Nishant and middle order batsman Sai L. were further depleted after Abhinav S. injured his knee while attempting a run and did not return to field.

Nevertheless, USC’s bowling came out guns blazing as Rohan bowled brilliantly to get rid of the dangerous Muffid for a duck. Vinai complemented him on the other end with a wicket maiden as USC got stuck into Ventura early and choked their top order to reduce them to 15/3 in 5 overs. Ventura captain Sunny along with veteran Yasir played very well to keep the target in range, but USC gave them no freebies on the field and made them work hard for each run. Ventura needed 17 off the last over and some improvisation by Yasir made the game interesting but USC had willed themselves to victory and came out on top.