The SCCG played against VECC on Sunday 02.06 in their 7th ACA T20 Division 2 game of the season at Ballpark Graz in the afternoon. Rain threatened the beginning of the game even before the toss, but eventually stopped in 15 minutes. With a slightly wet outfield, the SCCG, though losing the toss, got what they wanted – to bowl first.
Shirzad and shinwari began the first spell from the SCCG side. Shirzad started off with quite a few wides – 7 wides in the first over, though some of the calls were very strict by the umpire, and runs only coming off the extras. Shinwari continued to carry shirzad’s luck, as he started off with a few wides too. However, the first runs off the bat came in the second over in the form of a wonderful six by Kazim. Both openers made runs calculatively, and pushed the SCCg bowlers to the extreme by scoring runs off the bad balls bowled. The first wicket, fell in the last ball of the fourth over, kazim holed a catch to jimmy in the deep off a slower delivery from Avinash. The next wicket fell immediately in the next over, the VECC captain was sent off by sahil with a beautiful delivery and caught by Amit at short third man. The middle order, however, scored runs in singles and doubles, and pulled the VECC score towards 130s, with three batsmen contributing significantly. There were several tough chances behind the stumps, catches and stumping opportunities, which the SCCG failed to capitalize. The VECC batting line up however collapsed at the end, scoring 11 runs only in the last 5 odd overs and losing all their wickets. The VECC set a target of 147 runs to the SCCG and were all out. Both Sahil and Harun took 3 wickets each, Shirzad, Avinash and Ghani a wicket each, while Shimwari and Jimmy remained wicketless.
As usual, the SCCG started their chase with the in-form regular openers Jimmy and Vikram. Both jimmy and vikram looked in good touch, beautifully scoring runs and dealing with boundaries. Jimmy’s innings was cutshort at 39 runs off just 24 balls, and was caught in the very deep at the edge of the boundary off the spinner Avinash. Amit Singh Shekhawat of SCCG continued where Jimmy left off, scoring boundaries off every bad ball consistently. The partnership of Vikram and Amit proved too much for the VECC bowlers, as they failed to take their wickets until the end of the chase. Vikram went on to score a dominating half century, scoring 58 runs off just 43 balls, an innings of the highest quality. Amit remained unbeaten at 35 off 31 balls, continuing his consistent run in the tournament. The SCCG chased the target at 16.2 overs and won by 9 wickets in hand.
With this win, the SCCG now have 19 points (game #1 still to be updated in crichq by ACA, where SCCG scored 4 + 1 bonus point) and are at the top of the division 2 table.
The SCCG will play PCC Academy XI, in their 8th match of the season on the 8th of July at 14:30 in Ballpark Graz. The SCCG will continue to #PLAYGREEN throughout this season, to promote sustainability in cricket, what about you? give it a serious thought!
SCCG®: Play Green, Play for our Future 