A dry but blustery morning saw the CICC men’s T20 team ‘Domstadt Daredevils’ kick off their season with a T20 match against local rivals Challengers. The windy conditions meant swinging deliveries with uneven bounce, a fact that the Challengers’ bowlers exploited well after putting us in to bat, preventing any substantial partnerships by taking wickets regularly – only wicketkeeper Vj managing to break into double figures. In the end, The CICC XI mustered 71 over 16.2 overs, – probably well short of par! Nevertheless, the opening bowler duo Akram and Kausar kept a very tight line and length to pin Challengers back during the power play and beyond, conceding only 21 runs between them after 8 overs, and snaffling a wicket each to boot. With 8 wickets in hand though, Challengers’ experienced campaigners Sanjay and Nag kept their heads to eventually canter home with 6 overs to spare, winning the match by 8 wickets.<p>
This sobering result meant that skipper Sachin had his work cut out to rally the troops for the afternoon match against Moers CC! Fortunately, opener Ahmed was determined to make up for a lack of runs in the morning, compiling a magnificent, 90 not out off 61 balls from a total of 165/6 – a club record for this competition! Altogether this was a solid batting performance by the team, marked by steady partnerships throughout and a rapid 28 off 15 balls by Hamdad. Moers initially responded well, initially keeping up with the required rate of 8.5 runs an over, and a superb middle-order partnership of 55 between Prashanthan and Abad kept Moers in the game until our Hamdad had Prashanthan caught behind for 31. From that point, scoreboard pressure and a rapidly climbing RRR got the better of the tail-enders and Moers were finally bowled out for 129, giving the Daredevils victory by 36 runs.
