Mib-CC Vs Gracia CC, Semi final – FCC, 9th Oct 2023.
Location: Vidreres, Girona
MOM: Surya Balu
ScoreBoard : https://cricclubs.com/viewScorecard.do?&matchId=1383&clubId=9868
We are heading towards the end of the season. We played our last game 9th Oct, against Gracia CC. The two teams, who are strong challengers of the trophy were Head to Head for the Semis. Gracia CC has always been a healthy competitor. Heera Lal leading Gracia CC is a smart and cheeky player. He can surprise you with his bowling and explosive batting. Gracia CC has some explosive batsmen in their Armour. Kuldeep Lal never disappoints to put up a show for the audience with his stylish batting, followed by Vinod, Vickey, Sandeep holding the middle order for Gracia. Tirlochan aka Happy and Karan can do some initial damage with his swing bowling.
It was pleasant warm Sunday morning, Videres-Girona. Winning the toss, Gracia CC decided to bowl. It was obvious, batting first in weather conditions, is going to be challenging. New ball was expected to swing and scoring boundaries was not easy. Gracia CC’s plan to bowl first worked, Tirlochan aka Happy successfully made the damage in first over against to Men-in-blue, Amit completely misjudge the shot and handed over a simple catch. MIB’s middle order was well organized by Shankar, Surya, Sneh, Pandi, Naresh, Harpreet and Pras. MIB managed to reach 204/9, which is a good fighting score on board for Gracia CC. Surya with his batting was phenomenal, very smart cricketing shots. He scored alone 80 runs for MIB and Karandeep singh took 3 wickets.
Now, it’s turn for Gracia CC to put up some show with the batting, which they did’nt disappointed at all. It was a sheer eye candy to watch Kuldeep batting. Every bad ball, was out of the boundary, even some good balls were punished. MIB bowlers were struggling to make a break through, and after the power play Gracia CC easily made 70-80 runs without any loss. Kuldeep was in good shape, but a slower ball from Surya in the 10th over tricked him and plumb right infront of the wicket. This wicket was very crucial for MIB, Prassana from behind the wicket capitalized this oppurtunity, and used the bowlers to make regular strikes. Gracia CC was losing wickets under pressure and target run rate was mounting. Sandeep, Heera, Vinod and Karan was the batting strength for Gracia CC, could not sustain the pressure of batting second.
Kuldeep making the highest 56 runs and Surya with 3 wicket,Gracia was restricted to 192/9 in there 25 overs. Abhishek, Pratik, Saurabh, Sneh, Naresh, Pandi and Surya- Great bowling attack for MIB. They have the capability to surprise any opponent with their bowling talent. At the final moments of the game, last bowl of the match from Pandi, a simple catch to Harpreet and we are through to the finals.
It was a power packaged game and emotions were flowing from both ends. A big applaud to all the players, for a great game and making the match a good competition as a Semi Final should be.
Last but not the least, this quote is from Captain- Prasanna to the team.
“Life is full of surprises and throws challenges on you, so take a deep breath, be patient and trust your instincts till the last.”
Special Thanks to Sagar, Rinku, Laxmi, Aditya, Suraj and Nirav for their support to the team.