1st May, 2021, Morgan Hill.
Blazers (BAPL) 153 in 47.2 overs (Skanda Rohit Sharma 33, Abbas Jafri 4/33, Brynley Richards 3/24) beat Strikers 133 in 42.4 overs (Shehan Jayasuriya 47*, Sanjay Krishnamurthi 4/10, Josh Dascombe 2/23) by 20 runs.
The opening game of Bay Area Premier League was played between Blazers and Strikers. After winning the toss, Strikers opted to ball first, they did a decent job by dismissing Blazers for 153 runs. Kanish Bhalla and William Perkins came out to open the chase for Strikers. Against the disciplined bowling attack of Blazers, Strikers continuosly lost their wickets at regular intervals. Barring Shehan Jayasuriya, other batsmen hardly had any answers to the bowling attack of Blazers. Shehan remained unbeaten on the score of 47 while Strikers were bowled out for 133, falling short by 20 runs. From the bowling side, Sanjay Krishnamurthi grabbed four wickets against 10 runs. Josh Dascombe also took a couple of wickets.
As the first innings started, Dave Bunn and Shiva Vashishat came out to open the innings. Blazers were struggling against the Strikers' bowling attack right from the start. Abbas Jafri and Co. bowled along consistent lines and lengths throughout the innings. Abbas took 4/33 in his 7.2 overs, he was well supported by Brynley Richards, Vatsal Vaghela and Shehan Jayasuriya, they picked three, two and one wicket respectively. From the batting side, Skanda Rohit Sharma remained the top scorer with the score of 33.
Cougars 240/7 in 47.4 overs (Sami Aslam 79, Saideep Ganesh 62, Unmukt Chand 3/41) beat Grizzlies 236 in 49.1 overs (Shivam Mishra 91, Unmukt Chand 67, Bhavesh Jain 5/28) by 3 wickets.
In the second game, Cougars were given a target of 237 runs to chase down in 50 overs. As the second innings started, Malik Junaid was the first to depart, he was dismissed by Sheryar Khan in the very first over. Then Sami Aslam and Saideep Ganesh batted beautifully for their respective scores of 79 and 62. Down the order, Aditya Srinivasan's unbeaten 39 helped the batting side to get a score of 240. Unmukt Chand bowled well for his figures of 3/41 in 8.4 overs but couldn't resist Cougars from winning the game. Grizzlies used eight bowling options, Sheryar Khan, Shivam Mishra, Sohan Bhatt, Mohit Natraj and Unmukt Chand were all among the wickets.
As the first innings started, Mario Rampersaud and Vibhav Altekar came out to start the proceedings for Grizzlies. They started on a slower note, by the end of eighth over, both the openers were inside the pavillion. Then, Unmukt Chand and Shivam Mishra carried the innings forward, they reconstructed the innings and had a wonderful partnership of 117 runs for the third wicket. After Unmukt Chand was dismissed, Cougars made a comeback in the game as they didn't let any batsman to settle down. In the end, Cougars were able to dismiss Grizzlies for 236, courtesy, Bhavesh Jain's magical spell of 5/28. He helped Cougars to restrict the opposition to a small total, he dismissed both the set batsmen Unmukt and Shivam. Narsingh Deonarine also did a fine job by grabbing two wickets.
With the two sides having already earned victories, it will be challenging for Grizzlies and Strikers to make a comeback in the upcoming games. Let's wait and see, what does next week brings for us.
