By: Zeeshan
Chanderhama: Affarwat-XI on Tuesday paid the price for a poor batting performance against Shadipora Cricket Club and thereby losing the very first Knockout match by 5 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method in the 15th SNW Memorial T20 Cricket Trophy being played at Chanderhama Pattan.
After winning the toss Shiekh-Ul-Alam Cricket Club Shadipora posted a decent target of 180 runs for the loss of four wickets in allotted 20 overs. Reyaz played a splendid quick fire knock of 63 runs of 40 balls followed by 60 runs of Mustafa.
In reply, Affarwat-XI openers found it tough to rotate the strike, let alone hitting boundaries and sixes against some disciplined bowling and brilliant fielding from Shiekh-Ul-Alam Cricket Club Shadipora in the first six overs of powerplay.
Affarwat-XI opener’s struggle can be gauged from the fact that they scored just 31 runs for the loss of 2 wickets in the six overs of powerplay. In total the Affarwat-XI opener’s found the fence just twice in six overs of powerplay.
Mansoor and Khurshed , who cameon strike after the dismissal of both openers of Affarwat-XI, however looked in great nick and scored quick fire runs. When the heavens opened up, the D/L score was 67/2 in 8.5 overs at that point of time which fell short of 5 runs for Affarwat-XI to Victory.
In the 9th over Affarwat-XI were needed 23 runs as per D/L method, Mansoor hit huge six on the very first ball and boundary on the second ball gave some momentum to the match, on third ball of the over he took a single and gave strike to another batsmen Khurshid, he played the 4th ball of the over in dot and the bowler found 5th ball of his over out of the boundary rope for a huge six over the sight screen and the showers came out from heavens and didn’t stop till the whole field got wet, the result was declared as per D/L method and Shiekh-Ul-Alam Cricket Club Shadipora won the match by 5 runs.
Reyaz was adjudged as player of the match, while as Mustafa was awarded as moment of the award for his blistering knock of 60 runs off 32 balls.
The tournament is sponsored by Bio-Care Imaging and Diagnostic Centre Kreeri And IPRO Educational Services Baramulla.
