SOX keep it close at Spartans

SOX lost a close game yet again playing against Spartans. Earlier in the season SOX lost to Spartans at home by a handful of runs, a performance repeated yet again by the team that, in the spirit of looking at the silver lining, seemed to have found its bowling strength against quality batting.

 

SOX started by winning a crucial toss. The pitch was wet and the grass on the football field end was squishy in places with a big puddle on one side. It took a couple of big buckets to help clear that to a certain degree. Rest was left for the hot sun which was promising a warm day even during the early hours of the morning.

 

Spartans started with Jigar and another batsman (Name?). Rajan and Karthik started for SOX and while Karthik wavered a little he pinned down the batsmen just enough for Rajan to take advantage on the other end. Rajan kept his line and length for the most part making batting, which was already a tough task due to the pitch being wet, no picnic. Jigar batted well for Spartans and continued to take advantage of select few balls that were offered on the leg. Hasan kept wickets for SOX and did a phenomenal job behind the stumps. SOX fielding was just below par with a couple of catches going down. Bowling was substantially better than previous games where minimal amount of extras were given. Spartans kept loosing their wickets and were not able to score at an accelerated rate at any point in the game except for a couple of overs in the end. Spartans ended up with 167 on the board at the end of the 25th over. Rajan, Shahab, Sam, and Karthik were among wickets.

 

SOX started with Hasan and Shahab. Hasan was his usual self but the pitch continued to bother the batsmen. The ball was sticking to the pitch for just a touch longer than it should have and while Hasan managed to be more careful in his approach, SOX were finding it difficult to score. Hasan played some beautiful strokes though that included a six and three boundaries. Shahab and Hasan also ran some quick singles and twos while they were on. Eventually, he mistimed a shot and was caught by the short mid off fielder after scoring 29 runs. Rajan joined Shahab and showed a good deal of intent to fight with his intelligent batting. Just before the drink's break, Shahab was stumped after scoring 23 runs and with the total at 83 runs, and SOX needing 85 runs more, the slide began. Karthik was not able to get going and was out on the first ball he faced. Rajan and Sam got together but before a partnership could develop, Rajan got out mistiming a shot. Jagat joined Sam where Sam took centerstage and carted Mahendra all around the ground in one over. He scored 22 runs in an over with 2 massive sixes and 2 fours alongwith a couple of runs between the wickets. But just as SOX started to breath easy, Jagat got out trying to flick the ball on the legside, loosing his stumps in the process. Sandeep joined Sam in the middle and for sometime was not able to adjust to the pitch. Runs dried up once again and that compelled Sam to take charge. He tried to run one too many of the risky singles and unfortunately was caught short of his crease. Satish joined Sandeep in the middle and immediately set about the task of setting things right. Sandeep, in the meanwhile, was called back, and Gajja joined Satish in the middle. Both the batsmen were in the process of threatning to take over the game however, Gajja was not able to contain his instint to drive on the up and was caught in the covers. Satish was then joined by Saurabh. SOX needed 24 in 3 overs followed by 16 in 2 overs. At that critical juncture, Satish was run out and it was all over for SOX. SOX eventually loosing to Spartans after a tough fight. SOX have two crucial games coming up in August and the last game of the season is in Sept. In order to ensure a place in the playoffs, SOX have to win 2 out of the three remaining games.

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