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On a warm July afternoon, the Redbirds took on Force XI in their first match of the Super-12 in the CICA tournament. This was the first 20 over game that the Redbirds were going to play after having played 16 over matches in the league stage of the tournament. Force XI won the toss and elected to bowl.
After having tested a few changes in the batting line-up in that blistering knock against Spirit, Dheeraj brought himself on to open the innings again along with Vinod. They opened the innings for the Redbirds and put together a decent first wicket partnership of 26 runs for the first wicket. Dheeraj attempted to push a delivery that was pitched slightly uppish into the covers and gave a leading edge to the fielder at the second slip. Imran came in next and provided another top edge from a short pitched rising delivery to the fielder at short fine-leg who made no mistake of latching on to the ball.
Varun joined Vinod after that and provided an 18 run partnership for the third wicket. Kiran came out to bat next and played a very cautious and useful knock. He paced his innings extremely well as he watched the ball initially. After a few initial hiccups, he started connecting well with the ball and scored 24 runs from 20 deliveries. His innings included three boundaries and six. He put together a very useful 30 run partnership with Varun for the fourth wicket.
The redbirds were cruising at 75 for the loss of three wickets and Sajjad turned the tables before the second wickets as he dismissed both Varun and Kiran in consecutive deliveries. Guberan came in next and stayed in the middle for a brief period of time. Kedar and Sudheer played extremely well and added pressure on the Force XI by pushing the ball into the gaps and putting pressure on the fielders. They added 27 invaluable runs to the total between them for the 7th wicket. At the end of 20 overs, the Redbirds posted a 110 runs for the Force XI to chase down.
As always Kedar opened the bowling for the Redbirds and kept a very tight line giving away only one run in the first over. Vinod opened his spell with a wicket in his first over itself. He sent Jamal back with a terrific delivery outisde the line of off-stump that teased the batsman and he took a poke at it, only to edge it back to the wicket-keeper. Kedar took two wickets in his fifth over and got rid of the opener Katti and Ajay. Dheeraj also opened hi spell with a wicket in his over as he had Sachin caught behind. At the time of the first break Force XI were reeling at 26 for the loss of 4 wickets from 7 overs.
Imran and Dheeraj continued to bowl after the first break and gave away only 11 runs in the next 4 overs and the Force XI scorecard read 37 for 4 from 11 overs. As the Force XI players prepared to take on the attack, Imran dismissed Sajjad as he edged a length delivery that was pitched outside the line of off-stump. The next 7 deliveries were nothing less than a nightmare for the Redbirds as Faizal started hitting at will and scored 20 runs from seven balls. His twenty runs included 4 boundaries.
After appearing to take the game away from the Redbirds, Faizal fell in the 14th over for a catch that was well judged and held by Kiran in the deep mid-wicket region. Sid took on the attack next and scored 12 runs from the next three balls after Faizal got out. Sudheer was called in to bowl next and claimed the wicket of Ibrahim by keeping a tight line and length.
Force XI now required 31 runs from the last 4 overs with 3 wickets in hand. The Redbirds bowlers kept the pressure in the field and after a dropped chance in deep sqaure-leg, finally got Sid run-out in the 17th over. Needing only 2 more wickets to seal a victory, Kedar bowled as if he was breating fire in his last over. He was deservedly awarded with a wicket off of the last delivery of his spell as Sandeep edged a fast short pitched delivery back to the keeper. Dheeraj came on to bowl his last over and the innings came to an end as Manoj executed a smart run-out by running up to the stumps and flicking off the bails as the two batsmen got involved in a mix-up.
The Redbirds won the match by 19 runs with 2.2 overs left. The highlight of this match was the teamwork shown by all the Redbirds players. For the first time in the tournament, all the players contributed to the total and played to their true potential. Right from the opening partnership between Vinod and Varun to the penultimate partnership between Sudheer and Kedar, all the players kept their heads down and played disciplined cricket. All the Redbirds have to do now is play collectively and continue to showcase similar disciplined performances. Kedar was adjudged the man of the match for his wonderful in which he claimed 3 wickets and a contribution of 15 runs to the Redbirds total.
After registering their first win in the Super 12 stage, the Redbirds face-off against the relatively unfamiliar Beetles next week.
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