A good first weekend for the Cannons with 2 wins out of 3 and some fine individual performances from some new players.
Our Division 2 team got us started on Saturday and after a good start from skipper Dhruv Mohta who made 20 off 16, we collapsed to 7/56 in the 12th over. First gamer Nihar Shah showed composure scoring 27 from 32 and with the help of the tail managed to take us to a more respectable 9/102 off 20.
Not the score we would have wanted, but the boys were confident their bowling attack could defend the total, and this was reinforced when Jaideep Singh clean bowled their opener in the first over. Avengers kept attacking but we kept taking regular wickets, Gaganpreet Singh taking his first and then Nihar bowling one of their key bats around his legs second ball. This was the start of a great spell where he took 4/23 off his 4 overs to swing the game in our favour. Sensing spin would win, the skipper brought Kevin Tuvar (1/12 off 4) and Hiren Patel (2/13 off 2.4) on and they did the rest, Hiren taking the last 2 wickets in successive balls to wrap up an 8 run win with Avengers still having 20 balls left, but no batsmen to use them.
Division 1 started slow with Titans reaching 36 without loss in the 5th over, but form this point on our bowlers would dominate. Tushar Sehgal made the first breakthrough, and then Daksh Talwar (2/18 off 4) and Shadab Ahmed (2/21 off 4) took 2 each through the middle to really put the brakes on the scoring. Priyank Trivedi (3/16 off 2.5) and Ajay Deb ensured their tail wouldn't wag, and we knocked them over in the 18th over for 101, a great team bowling and fielding effort.
Chasing low totals had proved difficult so far during the weekend, but Daksh (41 off 26) and opening partner Rudy Audikesavalu (26 off 30) ensured their would be no jitters with an opening partnership of 64 in only 7 overs. Antony Roche and Grant Whitcombe then wiped off the rest of the target to complete an 8 wicket win with 37 balls to spare. Great start to the season for our top team.
Division 3 had a tough start, not having any answers with the bat as we fell to 8/54 after 15 overs. Jawad Naimat showed off his skills at this stage smashing 31 off only 12 balls, playing some lovely lofted shots over long off and deep cover. This allowed us to get up to 91 all out, at least something to defend.
Harman Singh took his first wicket for the club in the second over, a great catch from Hassan Hafeez running in from long on. Jawad then capped off a great debut taking 2 wickets in 2 balls next over, and it was game on at 3/14. Avengers recovered from here with some good batting, the only highlight was Tommy Upton clean bowling their main bat to claim his first wicket. After getting hit in his first over, he showed great poise to bounce back with some very accurate bowling. Avengers passed our score with 6 wickets and 45 balls to spare. Tough first outing but we had a lot of guys playing their first HCL game and they will be better for the experience of playing on the Commons field.
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