Asia blast RoW to set up Game 5 decider
AFTER WINNING THE TOSS at the Alan Cooke Ground (ACG) last Sunday (Jan 16), Jason Robertson and the Rest of the World (RoW) decided to bat first in arid conditions, looking to make Asia toil away for the full 30 overs.
Robertson sent out the previous weeks’ successful opening partnership of Michael Flowers and Anthony Van Blerk and the pair began where they left off, taking sharp singles and putting away the odd offline delivery from the Asia opening bowlers Sami Pir and Ashan Fonseka.
Just when it seemed the pair were set to put a significant partnership together, Flowers (9) was adjudged LBW in the 5th over from the bowling of Pir, leaving the score on 33-1.
Michael Rhys Thomas (8) fell next as RoW slumped to 47-2 in the 8th over before Van Blerk joined him in the clubhouse in the next over, caught behind by Manish Sadarangani from the bowling of the young up-and-coming Shivam Sachdeva.
Next the hard hitting Paddy Ledeboer (10) faced the extreme pace of Fonseka who delivered a ripping delivery to find the poles and leave RoW in some trouble at 4-117 after 14.4 overs.
Robertson (27) was then cleanbowled by Ahsan Ali which brought Aiden Wood to strike. Wood, who is the DJ for Phuket Cricket’s new sponsor Hugo Hub, immediately got off the mark with a well-played boundary, delighting his supporting friends in the clubhouse.
However, Wood (10) soon fell to a full straight delivery from Fonseka, leaving RoW on 6-147 in the 19th over.
With 68 balls of the innings still to face and unfortunately shorthanded due a couple of late cancellations, the reliable Curt Livermore (28*) came to the crease as the...
...final wicket of the RoW innings, dovetailing nicely with Rishi Sadarangani (45), before the latter skied a Deuskar delivery into the waiting hands of A. Ali to leave the score on 221 all out.
The 75-run partnership gave RoW momentum and a chance of victory although they still had a proverbial mountain to climb with limited resources on hand.
RoW immediately signalled their intent with Robertson finding an edge off opening batsman Sachdeva through to wicket keeper Van Blerk in the very first over.
Fonseka joined Manish Sadarangani in the middle and immediately looked for the fences with Sadarangani
rotating strike and finding the gaps with precision. A chance to dismiss Fonseka was dropped in the 6th over and it seemed as if the game had slipped away.
RoW’s woes were compounded further when Wood went down with an ankle injury and was carried from the field. His team mates then began to feel the game was effectively over as they were forced to battle the heat and chase leather for what seemed like the rest of the afternoon, merely completing the formalities of the Asia victory.
Man of the match Manish Sadaragani (98*) played a superb innings, batting all the way through to the conclusion of the match, only giving one chance in the final over of the innings while Fonseka (66) and Asia Captain Seemant Raju (21*) also played important roles in the run chase.
Ali Kahn (8) made a return to Phuket Cricket although he was missing the now damaged bat that had previously unleashed so much destruction to the surrounding parts of the neighbourhood and so many Phuket bowlers’ hearts. Despite the game being out of reach, slow bowler R. Sadarangani took much joy in bowling Kahn and taking his prized wicket.
Asia completed the victory by 6 wickets with 7.2 overs to spare, dishing out punishment to all of the RoW bowlers and, after being handed a heavy defeat in Game 3, will be quietly confident of victory in the upcoming Game 5 decider, the date of which is yet to be confirmed.
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Michael Flowers