9th May, 2021, Morgan Hill.
Grizzlies 190/2 in 36.1 overs (Nihal Desai 92*, Ruhan Swar 73*, Bibek Das 1/33) beat Blazers 189/9 in 40.1 overs (Bibek Das 39, Achyutha Rohit Sharma 3/18, Sohan Bhat 2/31) by 8 wickets.
After restricting the Blazers to 189, now it was the Grizzlies turn to chase down the total. Blazers started perfectly as they sent two Grizzlies' batsmen back in the pavilion with just six runs on board. But since then, it was only a two-men show, the magical unbeatable partnership of Desai and Swar. After the fall of the second wicket, Nihal Desai and Ruhan Swar never looked back and stood like a pillar until Grizzlies emerged victorious. They both paced their innings really well, their strike rates were 83 and 74. They didn't hurry and were patiently cruising along with the run rate. At the end of the game, Nihal Desai remained unbeaten on 92 while his partner Ruhan Swar was on 73 when the match was concluded.
Blazers won the toss and elected to bat first, they were two wickets down in the powerplay but Shamith Pasula and Aditya Harish made a slight comeback after adding 50 runs for the third wicket. But as soon as Aditya Harish got dismissed, Blazers batting line-up succumbed like a pack of cards. Achyutha Rohit Sharma dismissed three batsmen while Sohan Bhat got two wickets. They helped Blazers make a stunning bounce back in the game and restrict the Blazers to a small total of 189 runs.
Cougars 95/4 in 17.1 overs (Aarnav Iyer 41*, Yashas Revenakara 2/31) beat Strikers 94 in 29.1 overs (Ishaan Saraswat 46, Pratham Kataria 4/7, Arya Venkatesh 2/19) by 6 wickets.
Cougars had a very small target to chase down. They lost Arya Venkatesh in the second over of the innings but soon they recovered from the early blow. Though they lost another wicket for 32 runs, considering a small target, the situation was not alarming for Cougars. Aarnav Iyer batted beautifully for his 41 and took his team to victory. Yashas Revenakara was the best bowler with figures of 2/31.
The best way we can describe Strikers' innings is we can say it was a series of fall of wickets. Only Ishaan Saraswat could manage to get a decent score, otherwise it was only the Cougars' bowling show. Pratham Kataria bowled just 3.1 overs and took 4 for 7 in his spell. With the help of Venkatesh and Kallepalli, Cougars bowled Strikers out for just 94 runs. They both took a couple of wickets.
