Gladiators, Sukma XI make winning starts
KUCHING: Defending champions Sarawak Gladiators and Sukma XI made impressive starts to the 2nd Kuching City League T20 at SK Tassuda field over the last weekend.
On Saturday, fans, players and officials alike were greeted with a cracker of a match in the league opener between Sarawak Gladiators and Kuching Cricket Club ( KCC) where the former won by 17 runs.
Victor 56 and Dave 38 provided a decent start to KCC while chasing the target of 176 set by Sarawak Gladiators.
They absolutely went berserk and hammered Gladiators pace battery. At one time, KCC were cruising along nicely with 112 on board in 12 overs without losing any wicket but then Sahib found a way to sneak through with couple of wickets and from there on momentum shifted completely towards Gladiators.
KCC players kept playing some rash shots and gifted away their wickets.
Earlier in the innings, Gladiators didn’t had a good start as their openers fell cheaply. It was their middle order who resecured and saved the day for them. It was the bat that did the damage on the day.
The duo of Sahib and Abdullah played positively and were engaged in an enthralling partnership of 97 runs and that settled the deal at the half-way mark itself.
On Sunday, having lost the toss against Team Indus, Sukma XI laboured their way to 149/8 and the total never looked out of reach at the halfway mark.
But Team Indus allowed the pressure to consume them as they kept falling behind with lack of strike rotation and constant gifting of wickets.
They scored 55 and lost three wickets in the first seven overs, but then changed gears to squeeze 24 off the next two thanks to Shoaib and Govind who put together a phenomenal partnership of 62 runs.
That perhaps was the only phase where Team Indus grabbed the momentum, and unfortunately they left a little too much for the lower middle order to do.
Kelvin was the pick of the bowlers for Sukma XI who took four wickets for three runs in 1.5 overs. Sukma XI won by 20 runs. KCC wi l l next face Sukma XI this Sunday at 9.30am while Team Indus will take on Sarawak Gladiators in the other match at 1.30pm at SK Tassuda.