BAWA CUP: WFCC v UNCC, Match Report & Scorecard

Western Flyers (164 for 6) beat UNCC (160 for 6) by 4 wickets.

Western Flyers maintained their 100% start to the season as they inflicted a second defeat in as many games on pre-tournament group A favourites UNCC in a thrillingly close match on Tuesday evening. For the few spectators who came to watch this was T20 cricket at its most gripping, a perfect showcase of what makes this form of the game so exciting. The pre match talk had been of Western Flyers avenging last year’s semi-final defeat, and with UNCC likely to be fired up after a shock defeat in their opening match, everything pointed towards a close match. Nobody however, would have predicted it would be quite this close. It all came down to a final over which was packed with drama, if there had been an entrance fee, it would have been worth it on its own.

UNCC had earlier won the toss and their openers had made a solid start, aside from a big lbw appeal in the first over which fell on deaf ears there was little in the way of chances for the Western Flyers bowlers. Yameen and Munim opened the bowling, both struggling a little to adjust their line to the right/left handed batsmen combination. It was a fast pitch and anything with pace on it was being dispatched with ease. A couple of chances came and went, Saad putting down a catch on the run and Munim almost holding on to a difficult caught and bowled.

The breakthrough came in Anu’s second over, picking up the more dangerous of the opening pair clean bowled. The run rate kept steady though, and at the halfway point UNCC were 74-1 and were looking well set. Anu finished off his spell by dismissing the other opener, this time caught at mid-on, 2 wickets for 18 runs a tidy return from his 4 overs. The momentum was still with UNCC however and something was needed, a bit of magic from somewhere to change the direction of the innings. Atiq turned to Shehan. Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Two balls into the spell and the wickets started to tumble, a mistimed swipe to a short ball which gave mid-on a simple catch was followed by a fuller ball that trapped the new batsmen on his crease lbw and left Shehan on a hat trick. The pressure told, another ugly swipe straight up in the air and a simple catch, 3 wickets in 3 balls and the match had suddenly turned. The switch in momentum turned out to be short lived though. UNCC recovered well and in the closing overs the run rate picked up, despite Yameen coming on to finish his 4 overs and removing the dangerous Jerome caught behind neatly by Nathan.

161 was the target for Western Flyers to win and with the light fading it was always looking like being a big ask. With 8 an over needed there was no need to come out swinging. That was the theory at least. Not to be outdone by his own bowling performance, Shehan came to the crease and bludgeoned 22 runs off the first over.  Tim who was playing his first game of the season after knee surgery was the other opener. He didn’t stick around long, bowled through the gate for 3 to bring the captain Atiq to the middle. With Shehan continuing to score freely it gave the new batsmen time to play themselves in and Atiq did just that, scoring a run-a-ball 17 before he was bowled.

Ahead of the required rate and with wickets in hand Western Flyers were looking favourites to chase this down. The biggest blow to the run chase however seemed to come when Shehan crashed another boundary to reach his fifty off 31 balls and, as per the competition rules, had to retire. Wickets soon started to fall at the other end, Saad lbw first ball (a hint of an inside edge but no hotspot in play to reverse the decision),Thusitha bowled for 10 and Oliver bowled for 11. With four overs left the run rate had climbed up to over 10 an over. Anu was building a nice innings, playing himself in with his customary dabs into the leg side, but the runs didn’t seem to be coming quickly enough. Yameen added 7 before he was caught as he tried to go aerial. Ian joined Anu at the crease for his debut innings of the season but the pressure didn’t seem to bother him, crashing his first ball back past the bowler for four and then somehow getting on top of a sharply rising delivery to cut it backward of point for four more. Anu added a couple more boundaries and suddenly it was back on.

The final over, nine runs needed from it and the time was almost 9pm as Anu squinted through the gloom and set himself for one last push. The first ball, a huge maximum pulled high over midwicket, the WFCC players on the boundary cheering like crazy. The bowler turns and comes in for his second ball. Dot ball. Three needed from four. The third ball of the over, Anu drives, edges it behind and the keeper drops it. A huge let off, three now needed from the final three balls to win the game. A single comes from the next ball and leaves Ian on strike, two needed from two balls and all three results still possible. If people were watching this on telly the commentators would be saying something about them not having any fingernails left. The penultimate ball of the match, Ian closes his eyes and swings*, the ball flies up in the air and presents what is surely a simple catch for the man less than 15 yards from the bat. The batsmen run the single anyway while more cheers from the boundary erupt as the ball is hopelessly fumbled to the floor. The scores are level, the tie at the very least is guaranteed, one run needed from the final ball as the fielders close in around the bat. Casually as ever, Anu plants his front foot and caresses the most sumptuous of drives through the covers, the fielders don’t even bother to chase it as the rest of WFCC invade the pitch to celebrate.

A famous victory for Western Flyers who will face Knockout Knights, the only other unbeaten team in group A, in their next game on Wednesday 28^th May.

Match Report by Tim Fewster

Scorecard –

UNCC 160/4 (20 overs)

WFCC 164/6 (20overs)

WFCC won by 4 wickets

UNCC Innings (20 overs maximum)
Batsmen	Runs scored	How out	Bowler	Total
Azhar	1 4 1 1 1 4 4 4 1 1 1 6	Bowled	Jude	29
Nazir	4 1 4 1 1 4 1 4 1 1 2 1	Caught	Jude	25
Geoff*	2 1 4 4 1 4 1 4 1 1 1 6 2 1 2 1 2 1 1	NOT	OUT	40*
Hascher	1 4 1 1	Caught	Shehan	7
Guy		LBW	Shehan	0
Sai		Caught (Jude)	Shehan	0
Jerome	4 4 1 1 1 1 2 4 1 1 1 4	Caught (Nathan)	Yameen	25
Gopala*	1 1 1	NOT	OUT	3*
		Bowling extras	No balls	1
			Wides	24
		Fielding extras	Byes and leg byes	4
		Total extras		29
		Total score		160 runs for  6 wickets, 20 overs

WFCC Bowling (20 overs)
Bowlers	Over 1	Over 2	Over 3	Over 4		Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Yameen Hussain	5 runs	9 runs	17 runs	7 runs W		4	0	38	1
Munim Mushfiq	8 runs	4 runs	1 run	7 runs		4	0	20	0
Jude Mudannayake	3 runs	4 runs W	5 runs	6 runs W		4	0	18	2
Atiqur Rahman	15 runs	7 runs				2	0	22	0
Oliver McCambridge	11 runs					1	0	11	0
Shehan Somaratna	1 run WWW (Hattrick)	15 runs	8 runs			3	0	24	3
Tim Fewster	13 runs	10 runs				2	0	23	0

WFCC Innings (Target 161 in 20.0 overs)
Batsmen	Runs scored	How out	Bowler	Total
Shehan Somaratna*	4 2 4 6 4 4 4 1 6 6 4 1 4	RETIRED	NOT OUT	50* (31)
Tim Fewster	1 2	Bowled	Hascher	3 (4)
Atiqur Rahman	1 1 4 1 1 1 4 4	Bowled	Jerome	17 (17)
Oliver McCambridge	1 1 1 1 4 1 1 1	Bowled	Nazir	11 (20)
Saad Ahmed		LBW	Geoff	0 (1)
Thusitha Wickramasinghe	4 1 4 1	Bowled	Nazir	10 (11)
Jude Mudannayake*	1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 4 4 1 6 1 4	NOT	OUT	29* (21)
Yameen Hussain	1 1 1 2 2	Caught	Azhar	7 (8)
Ian Randles*	4 4 1	Not	Out	9* (5)
Munim Mushfiq	DID	NOT	BAT	-
Nathan Sanders	DID	NOT	BAT	-
		Bowling extras	No balls	1
			Wides	14
		Fielding extras	Byes + Leg byes	8
		Total extras		23
		Total score		164 runs for 6 wickets, 20 overs

UNCC Bowling (20 overs)
Bowlers	Over 1	Over 2	Over 3	Over 4		Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Hascher	22 runs	3 runs W				2	0	25	1
Zaheer	12 runs	12 runs				2	0	24	0
Jerome	9 runs	5 runs	9 runs W	13 runs		4	0	36	1
Geoff	9 runs	4 runs	4 runs W	8 runs		4	0	25	1
Nazir	5 runs	4 runs W	4 runs	4 runs W		4	0	17	2
Babar	6 runs	4 runs	11 runs W	12 runs		4	0	33	1

Match Detail

Toss - UNCC, elected to bat

Player of the match - Shehan Somaratna