1st KnightRiders gave AGSFPs a real scare on Saturday falling 30 short of their target of 199 and only 12 balls left at Harlaw Road grounds.
Knightriders won the toss and invited AGSFPs to bat first.P Mallireddy opened the bowling with P Palaniyandi in the absence of "The Big" Prash but failed to make any impact in the first spell.The opening batsmen put in a impressive 72 run stand before G Morrison (37) was out LBW in S Sundararaj's over.His partner Keith 35, was bowled soon after by the same bowler as FPs slipped to 91 for 2.Later AGSFPs rode on P Tenneti's (64) 70-run stand with J Waldrom(35) to post a competitive 199 for 7 wickets in 45 overs.P Mallireddy, P Palaniyandi & S Sundararaj took 2 wickets each.
KnightRiders lost three early wickets in its chase before N Patherikadavil 34(5x4) and S Rangaraju 34 (2x4,1x6) put on 60 runs for the fourth wicket to keep the team in the chase.But R Knudson(3wkts) & S Knudson (2wkts) ripped through KnightRiders middle order and reduced them to 109 for 8 .With only 13 overs remaining KnightRiders could have easily played for draw.But skipper
S Sundararaj 13 (2x4) and The Hitman
P Palaniyandi 39 (4x7) played beautifully , as the game looked to go to the wire.With 42 runs needed from 36 balls and the way two batsmen are playing plus The Giant V Gunasekaran yet to bat we thought we had it in the bag!.But V Vijapur clean bowled skipper S Sundararaj and V Gunasekaran as AGSFPs won with only 2 overs left .
Knight of the Day :
P Palaniyandi
2nd KnightRiders register comfortable 5 wicket win against St. Ronald.
Skipper B Balaji won the toss (again!) and invited the visitors to bat first.S Mohideen & R Ramadas opened the bowling for KnightRiders but didn't look dangerous at any point .A change of bowling proved fruitful as A.Munde (7) was clean bowled by B Balaji. But D.Coogan 38 and M.Munro(26) added 50 runs for 2nd wicket partnership .A change of bowling again proved fruitful as L Baskaran took 3 quick wickets to reduce St.Ronald to 107-5. P.Gundra 16 looked dangerous but bowler K Sekar ripped through the middle/lower order and St.Ronald finished on 152 - 9 in 46 overs.
Lokesh Baskaran and
Karthik Sekar took 3 wickets each.
In reply KnightRiders tried another new opening combination and it was U Jayachandran & S Asok.The pair added 16 runs when P.Gundara clean bowled U Jayachandran (7) and KnightRiders were 16 -1.G Kumaravelu (14) was starting to look dangerous with three good boundaries but then retired hurt with cramp.
, looking increasingly comfortable in the top order role made a solid 36 not out (2x4) and with S Asok added a useful 40 odd runs as 3rd wicket partnership.
S Asok 34 (2x4) played another sensible innings before getting out in D Coogan's over.A quick fire 18 (1x4,1x6) from
G Bimalsony took KnightRiders closer to the target.D Coogan stuck again removing G Bimalsony & skipper B Balaji in quick succession ,but it was a little too late to pressurise the hosts.KnightRiders knocked off the winning runs in the 36th over, winning by 5 wickets.
There were rather too many extras on both sides, but 2nd KnightRiders now move to their next match against Fraserburgh with high hopes of winning the game and moving to top of league 2 table.
Knight of the Day -
Deepu Mani