Skip to main content

ACA 2017/18: Falcons v/s PHX Cardinals

Game 10 for the Falcons on their home ground at Sandpiper, as they were taking on the PHX Cardinals who had had their fair share of success in the season. The PHX Cardinals played some smart cricket and capitalized on some lackluster performances from the Falcons to win a close game handing the Falcons their first defeat of the season with a little more than a couple of overs to spare late in the day.

The game started in an unusual fashion for the Falcons as the PHX Cardinals opening batsmen, R. Kale and A. Chaube capitalized off of full tosses and over-pitched deliveries from the Falcons racking up several boundaries to start with as they built a solid opening partnership. A. Chaube played the silent role in the partnership as R. Kale stuck to the aggressive role forcing a bowling change to bring on H. Mistry and A. Londhe earlier than usual. However, batting seemed very easy as the batsmen were able to put away the good deliveries and get that one boundary an over to keep the scoreboard ticking at over 6 an over. There was some reprieve for the Falcons when R. Kale 52(55b) drove off of a length ball off M. Manikarnike in the 16th over only to be caught at long off. The next few overs were quiet enough with that fall of the wicket and PHX Cardinals found themselves at 123/1 at the drinks break after the 20th over.

PHX Cardinals resumed their innings after the drinks break with much ease as they were able to rack up 50 runs in 7 overs after the drinks break, when G. Lal pulled off an amazing diving catch running in from long on to mid-on to pick up A. Chaube for a smartly compiled 68(81b). The Falcons fought well towards the last 10 overs picking up 7 wickets, 1 almost every over restricting PHX Cardinals to just 51 runs off their last 10 overs who ended their innings at 240/9 off their 40. 

The Falcons came back well with the bat having had the better share of the final 10 overs on the field, as openers A. Londhe and C. Dhekne were easing into the PHX Cardinals bowling attack striking boundaries amidst some extras that came their way putting up 56/0 in the first 10 overs. With some bowling changes, PHX Cardinals were able to pull the run rate down and picked up the crucial wicket of A. Londhe for 41(44b) as the Falcons found themselves having to rebuild at 78/1 after 13.4 overs. New batsman, J. Patel played out a few balls before striking a long hop straight into the lap of short mid-wicket. At 90/2, H. Mistry walked in as the aggressor to put up a brisk partnership of 72(62b) along with C. Dhekne, striking some lusty blows which put the Falcons back in contention. However, a cramping Dhekne ran himself out in a moment of brain-fail leaving the Falcons having to re-build again from 162-3. 

The Falcons were never able to re-build in the fashion that they would have hoped to as H. Mistry got out for a well made 39(37b) looking to strike big again, but was caught at long-on and soon after R. Vasudevan was run-out leaving the Falcons at 176/5 off 31 overs needing 65 off of 54 balls. M. Rohit, A. Patel and A. Tummala were only able to get one hit before succumbing through a catch, lbw and a run out. The end wasn't far enough, but the tail wagged just that little bit to bring the Falcons to 23 runs away from victory before the innings was wrapped up.

Both, the teams had their fair share of luck as edges and miscues fell in no-man's land which isn't taking anything away from the kind of cricket that PHX Cardinals played as they were clearly the better team on the field on the day, but is reflective of the wicket at Sandpiper which had a slow wicket and a fast outfield providing value to good length deliveries as well as value to well timed shots.
Labels:
Location: 6530 E Hearn Rd, Scottsdale, AZ 85254, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Landmark Worth Remembering

This post is mainly for the people who are saying that Sachin's 100th century isn't that special because it came against Bangladesh. The others who don't think that way can read it and take pleasure in reminiscing all the great moments that this great man has provided over the past 23 years. First of all, saying that it's not that special because it came against Bangladesh is entirely wrong because Bangladesh are progressing well and they have shown signs of this in the ongoing Asia Cup, coming close to Pakistan's total in the opening game and beating India in their second. In fact their bowling attack is what they rely on to win matches most of the times. Getting a hundred off that attack is not as easy as everyone thinks. Secondly, there are opinions that when Sachin scores a century India lose which might have been true on so many occasions in the past. But, does that statement mean that Sachin is losing India games by scoring centuries? It doesn'...
10 comments
Read more

Captains Of This Era

               Captains of this era have all been the perfect ones for their respective countries, if one considers the situation that each country was in at the time of being made captain. Andrew Strauss, Graeme Smith, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Ricky Ponting have all been good captains given the records that they possess even after such lengthy stays at the international level as captains. The thing that was common amongst these people was that they all had a good base for them to start on. Strauss was probably the one amongst these four to have started on shaky ground. Statistics as Captain for each player.                               Three people who catch the eye are Michael Clarke, Misbah-ul-Haq and Darren Sammy. All these 3 have been captain for about the same number of Tests which is on...
3 comments
Read more

ACA 2017/18: Falcons v/s Phoenix CC

The Falcons, with 2 victories on their back against ASU and Tucson Superkings at the start of 2018, entered Game 9 of their season to play Phoenix CC who were lurking at the bottom of the table. The Falcons, being favorites to win this game put on a thumping performance, bowling Phoenix CC out earlier on and wrapping the up target, ending the game at 13:33 local time. The game started with Phoenix CC winning the toss and electing to bat, and in the end, what seemed like the only thing that went in their way on the day. The Phoenix CC batting order never seemed to gain momentum even though they were able to maintain decent run rate of 4 an over as they lost wickets to some good bowling from the Falcons at such regular intervals that it almost seemed like it was all being played out from a script that was already written for them. At the end of 20 overs as the teams went into their drinks break, Phoenix CC had lost a few too many wickets to their liking even though they were trudgi...
Post a Comment
Read more