May 23, 2015

It was just past noon. The day was Monday, still 5 days to go for Saturday-the day we all wait eagerly to arrive. My whatsapp was full of notifications and more than 95% of it were from Rockerzzz group. And why not that Saturday was supposed to entertain the most anticipated match of the season. The build up to that match had to be electric. So, it was!

Watch YouTube intro here

People were practising. They were criticizing. Lot of banters, lot of mauka dubsmash were created. All in all the oppositions were wishing luck to the other team, silently hoping their form goes away on the D-day. Never before in the recent past a turnout of this figure (23 in total) was witnessed.

RoI at left and KKR at right

KKR team pic before the match

1st match: KKR won the toss and opted to bat first. They managed 79 in 12 overs. RoI chased it down in the thrilling last over

Highlights from the game

 - RoI bowlers targeted Vicky from the start. And they got their man cheaply within 3 overs.

 - Maaz and Gaj were the pick among their bowlers who stick to basics and kept taking wickets at regular intervals, never giving enough room to let KKR score freely

 - Tanzeel and Vikash tried to rebuild the innings but they were slow and KKR scoring rate never took off

 - Vikash gave a stupendous start to KKR. He took 2 wickets in his first over with his slow left arm leg spin

 - KKR too were among wickets with Suraj chipping in along with Vikash. The target of 80 seemed far but RoI had a good battting line up to chase down even though wickets were falling

 - One bad over from mehran which went for 18 runs scored by Sumit brought back the much needed momentum for RoI

 - RoI required 28 runs in the last 4 overs. With Afsal still in the crease the runs were still achievable. But 2 good overs from Vikash (1 run) and Suraj (5 runs) brought the down the equation to 22 off 12 balls

 - Farooq the man to go to during death overs was assigned the task. But Afsal had other thoughts. 2 huge sixes in that over titled the balance in RoI's favor

 - 8 runs in the last over couldn't be defended when Afsal is in marauding mood. A six off Rehan's 3rd ball sealed the match

2nd match: KKR gave RoI a target of 98 to chase this time. RoI couldn't replicate their efforts this time and fell by 43 runs scoring only 55 in 12 overs

Highlights from the match

 - Vicky and Tausif were superb from the start.Their innings started in 4th gear, scoring more than half of their team runs (24 and 30 respectively)

 - Tausif charged Buland in one of his overs and picked up 24 runs. Mehran was the happiest as he was thinking "okay someone got hit more than me"

 - RoI tried to pull things back by taking quick wickets. Gaj again along with Maaz and Yuvi were the ones who tried and kept KKR not cross 100 runs

 - Choke is the word best describing KKR bowlers doing to RoI batsman. Vikash, Suraj and Mehran in their inital overs gave away only 22 runs in 7 overs

 - Even for Afsal it was going to be tough to cover up the remaining 76 runs in 5 overs. 

 - A little over 19 runs (3 consecutive sixes from Afsal) off Rehan's over gave some hope to RoI and a little scare to KKR. But scoring more than 55 runs in the last 3 over was going to be tough even for ABD, Gayle and Yuvraj

 - KKR had Piyush Chawla (suraj) and Narine (Vikash) along with Pollock (Farooq). 2 good overs from former two brought the equation to 44 off the last over

 - Tanzeel finally getting a chance to bowl gave just 1 run and took 2 wickets to complete a resounding victory by KKR