Kaushal Blasters 220/13 in 25.3 overs (Simran 64, Sanjay 40, Gurpreet 3/54) defeated Pinnu N Aman XIV 158/13 in 23.1 overs (Brar 29, Gurpreet 25, Manoj 5/40) by 62 runs
Cricheros is a unique Cricketing app for a reason. If you start browsing through the tournaments, you will come across some of the weird looking scorecards. The kind of a sport cricket is, it allows flexibility in its terms of playing the game.
The Garg hair transplant Cup 2019 is one such tournament where you might come across weird looking scorecards. Reason? Well, at this tournament, there’s no playing XI. There’s a playing XIV instead. 18 teams fought for around 5 months to have their hands on the trophy and finally, Kaushal Blasters and Pinnu N Aman XIV turned out on top.
The two finalists were up against each other on 16th June 2019 at TSA Bhatinda. When the rain interrupted the India Vs Pakistan game in the Northern Hemisphere, these 28 players were busy entertaining the crowed and followers at the TSA. Pinnu N Aman XIV won the toss and decided to chase (Pretty much how Sarfaraz did it).
Yuvraj Singh (Nope, not that one) along with Gurpreet came out all guns blazing for the Blasters. Gurpreet got out in the second over but Yuvraj didn’t slow down and by the time second over came to an end, thirty eight runs were already there on the scoreboard. But this is just one side of the story. They lost two precious wickets within first 2 overs in a 26 over game. The perk of having 14 players in the dugout is that you can actually afford losing some wickets. Blasters lost five of them within first ten overs but piled on 85 runs too. With over ninety balls still in the bag, Blasters needed to stabilize their inning and build on a massive total and this is where Simran (64 off 28, 1*4, 9*6) and Sanjay (40 of 46, 4*4, 2*6) joined hands. A 99 run partnership between these two did not just bailed the Blasters out of trouble, but also came in at a quick pace, off just 47 balls. With some lower order assistance, Simran guided Blaster to a commendable total of 220 before being bundled out in the last over.
With the batsmen like Aman in their squad, a required run rate of 8.46 was pretty much achievable for the Pinnu N Aman XIV. They were looking to start it off in a similar style as their opposition but Pinnu was stumped off the second ball he faced after smoking a monstrous six. A mixture of reckless batting with flashes of brilliance, Pinnu N Aman XIV had five of their top batsmen back in the hut for just 68 in the 8th over. Although they managed to keep the required run rate down, they lost wickets which are a kind of a crime in pressure games.
If you go through the first inning, you will notice that Blasters were in a similar situation. Pinnu N Aman XI needed someone like Simran to carry them ahead with brilliance. Gurpreet (29 off 31) and Brar (25 off 22) tried to stabilize the inning but they failed to keep the run rate in touch. With over 100 require off last 10 overs, even captain Aman failed to cope up with the pressure. Some nasty blows by Ali in the final overs were only good enough to avoid a big defeat for the Pinnu N Aman XI as they were destroyed by the military medium of Manoj Garg (5-0-40-5).
