Scorecard TITANS vs Falcons

Result: TITANS won by 7 wickets

This game was always a high profile game for us. Playing against a team which has not lost any game so far, and we coming back from an agonizing defeat, there was everything at stake. A loss today would have meant that we would have been relegated somewhere close to the bottom of our Pool. However, we showed strong character, intense commitment, and fierce determination in not only defeating Falcons but defeating them convincingly enough to dramatically improve our runrate. In the process, we took revenge for our defeat to Falcons last year. That defeat started our downfall last year, and we need to ensure that this victory leads us to many more victories this year.
Falcons won the toss and elected to bat to start the proceedings.

Falcons batting
Falcons batting has proved itself to be quite potent so far in the series, scoring around 100 runs in every game. At the same time TITANS bowlers have always restricted the opposition to a below 80 score. So it was going to be an interesting battle between ball and bat. Kiran started the things for TITANS, concentrating on line and length. One No Ball and One Wide came in that over, 6 runs were given in the next over from Satheesh. It seemed as if Falcons was beginning to run away with the game rightaway. Kiran and Satheesh then produced two beautiful overs after that to frustate both the openers. Falcons were 0/10 before the 5th over. On the first ball from Kiran, frustation got better of Babu and he lofted the ball above Sandeep at covers. Ball was floating way over his head, but he jumped anyways, and to everybody surprise plucked the ball from thin air. And that started the downfall of the Falcons. Satheesh's first ball of next over found Arvind plumb in front of wicket. He was on hat-trick when he produced another gem of a delivery which kissed the batsman bat and landed safely in Abhilash's gloves. Satheesh just missed his hat-trick when his next delivery got the batsman's edge but ball was not in air for long enough to land in the hands of one of the fielders. In no time, Falcons were reduced from 0-10 to 3-10. Sandeep took another excellent catch running to his left in the last over of Kiran. Abhay replaced Satheesh and got rid of Vijay, who was looking good till then, caught by Satheesh at short fine leg, 5-34. Ramana got into his act from his second over when he removed two more wickets, Prashant plumb and Hari caught by Sandeep. In next over from Ramana, bastman lofted an easy catch for Kapil 8-45. There was a mix up between runners on the first ball of Vinay's second over and Mohan's excellent throw found Vikram short of the crease. Ramana removed the last batsman caught by Abhilash. Falcons were all out on 46, around a 100 less than they would have excpected.

Titans batting
All TITANS need to do from there was keep their wickets and get easy runs. Shilpan and Vinay opened the innings. Vijay bowled 7 wides in that over with a consolation wicket of Shilpan who was given LBW by umpire in what was an act of careless umpiring. The worst from the umpire however was yet to come. He gave Vinay LBW on a ball going down the leg and few runs later made Kapil go back to the pavilion when ball hit his leg outside the off, which otherwise would have been wide. TITANS were 3-19 at that point. Realising the umpire's unpredictability, the Falcons team had started appealing for anything and everything - at times, itself unsure what it was appealing for. Mohan was playing steadily from one end making sure ball hits the bat or nothing, so that umpire doesnot give out. Abhay and Mohan took the TITANS to victory from there without any further loss. A comprehensive Victory was achieved when more than half the overs were yet to be bowled.
One important thing which was evident in every TITAN was the hunger to win. Everyone of us gave their 100 percent to make sure that last game mistakes are not repeated. An applaudible effort. Adios to MOHAN who is going back to India for good. His efforts for our team's cause will always be appreciated by us. Again special thanks to Bijaya for coming and doing a great job with scoring.


Funny moment of the match : "Umpire is not co-operating any more."- the Slip Fielder, after the umpire turned down an obvious bat and pad appeal for LBW. The umpire gave 3 LBWs prior to that, just because the ball hit the leg.