Raja’s brialliance tamed the RedBulls

In the clash of the titans - positive attitude, hunger combined with brilliance of Raja gave Assassins their claim to ISA CUP ’08.While dropped catches and miscalculations costed RedBulls the cup. It is very rare to see one player to have such a dominating effect on the match and the much deserved kudos go to Raja. He put brakes on RedBulls scoring with wonderful bowling and lifted Assassins to victory with calculated batting filled with strokes of luck.

RedBulls innings never got the momentum going, and in the end was short by atleast 5 to 10 runs. Praveen and Shakti started the innings with wonderful excellent running between the wickets. However, shakti’s stay at crease was cut short by good catch at covers. Praveen scored two consecutive boundaries but was run out in the same over. With Shiva, Sushanth and Piyush scoring no runs it put further dent in the RedBulls scoring rate. The icing on the cake was Vinay’s continued dominance with bat. He dismissed bowlers with ease and scored boundaries all around the wicket. Rana played perfect foil to Vinay and the duo propelled Redbulls to competitive score. However, intelligent bowling and athletic fielding from Assassins kept the RedBulls under control. A late onslaught from Vivek gave further twist to the already gripping match. At the end of first innings RedBulls were in driver’s seat with a formidable total of 74 from 10 runs.

Nayan started the innings with a boundary, but was fell to precision and control of Rana. Raja was welcomed to the crease with a dropped catch of the very first ball, which in the end proved to be the deciding point of the game. Assassins, particularly Vinayak, showed positive chasing approach and belted Sushanth and Vinay for 26 runs in 2 overs. Vivek and Piyush did well to control the scoring rate. Vivek was particularly impressive with his miserly spell. Vinayak chose his shots well, but fell to good bowling from Piyush. Benny and Raja continued taking singles and pushing the score board. Assassins were in Cruise mode through midway of their innings, scoring boundaries and singles with ease. At the critical phase of the game the equation was 20 required of 18 balls. Vivek bowled a maiden 8th over and gave RedBulls the slight advantage. Rana’s bowling was turning point of the game, during which Redbulls failed to latch onto catches from Phani and Raja. He induced four catches from the first four balls in the penultimate over, but missed chances meant runs instead of dot balls and wickets. With 9 required from 6 balls, RedBulls again missed an opportunity of a runout in the very first ball of Vinay’s over. Raja outplayed Vinay with clean hitting and scoring boundaries of successive balls. The final score card read “Assassins won with 7 wickets in hand with two balls to spare”.

In the battle of nerves, RedBulls once again failed to latch onto chances, while Assassins showed lot of character in overcoming a formidable total. In the end it was Raja, riding his luck for first few moments of his stay once, who guided Assassins to the trophy.

Congratulations Assassins……..winners of ISA CUP ‘08