Corinthians Prevail over Cosmos Despite Rajp’s Five-Fer

Corinthians and Cosmos squared off this past weekend in a hard fought game between the two friendly sides. Having won the toss, Cosmos’ skipper Thoe Mavro put Corinthians into bat, opting to bowl even with just nine players present on the field, in the hope his full squad would’ve eventually showed up.  Sadly, Cosmos played the whole game with just 10 and that ended up costing them the game.

Abhimanyu Rajp picked up five for 49 and struck 47 in Cosmos loss to Corinthians. Photo by Shiek Mohamed

Corinthians got off to a great start with Randeep Singh and Mark Punshon putting up a 90-run opening stand that lasted 20 overs before Abhimanyu Rajp disturbed the woodwork of Singh in his second over. Randeep departed on a well-made 57 off 71 balls. Rajp then, in partnership with Ali Shafi, got Cosmos back in the game and both bowling in tandem, reduced Corinthians to 125 for 8 from 91 for 1. Rajp ended his straight nine over spell with the figures of 5 for 44, and Ali Shafi ended with 2 for 36 off his 8 overs.

Corinthians was well behind the eight ball, but the lower order had other ideas. David Pieters and Chamkaur Khosa went on a rampage and added just about 50 runs for the ninth-wicket stand. Pieters was caught by Ali Shafi at the boundary line off Marcus Stewart for his 32 of 36. Chamkaur inflicted even more pain and took on the Cosmos bowlers with his clean hitting. Cosmos was unable to take the last wicket and Corinthians ended with 245 in 45 having been at 125 for 8 in 28. Chamkaur, with his lusty blows, made an aggressive 69 off 49 balls.

Cosmos started their innings where they left off in the previous game and Abhimanyu Rajp and Marcus Stewart (17 off 24) had the team at 35 in 6, before Marcus sliced one in the air off Pieters to give Corinthians their first blood. Rajp kept going and accumulating runs at better than a run-a-ball, and ended with 47 off 39 when he bottom-edged one to the keeper off Randeep Singh. The game was leveled at 86 for 2 in 16. Tirth Sanyal was feeling for the ball but could not get going; Theo Mavro and Ali Shafi put up a solid partnership of 51 before Theo, who was looking solid at the crease, edged one to a leaping Punshon behind the stumps for a brilliant catch, making 36 off 43 deliveries. With the score at 161 for 5 in 34, Cosmos needed another 84 in 11 overs.

Ali Shafi was soon joined by Konrad Muller and the two started to show some aggression, however Muller ran out of luck and was caught with the score at 194 for 6 in 39. It was a close game throughout, but the turning point came in the 43rd over when Shafi and Arjunan attempted a second run, which was never there, having been sent back by Arjunan. He had a solid knock of 60. With no 11th man, it was left up to Arjunan and Jafar to get 24 runs in two overs which was almost achieved, as Jafar hit a six and a four, but they fell short by 11 runs.

Good luck to Corinthians for the rest of the season. Cosmos will look to make sure they have 11 on the field for their next meeting with Friends on Saturday at Highland.

Story courtesy of Cosmos Cricket Club Facebook page.