By Sham Ali
(Celebrating 46th Anniversary): – Cosmos youths fought a good fight last Sunday when they came up against a senior Pehowa Warriors team at Idlewild Park last Sunday.
Warriors won the toss and elected to bat after the match was reduced to twenty overs and got off to a shaky start after Alvin Gobin removed G. Singh in his first over to give Kings an early whiff, but Warriors kept fighting. A few crucial chances went begging, that allowed Warriors to capitalize and kept advantage.
A 42 runs 2nd wicket partnership between H. Singh (36) and S. Ishan (23) led to the recovery before the ambidextrous Joseph Rajkumar severed the partnership when he disrupted Josep’s stumps. Rajkumar then picked up M. Singh (19), who was just beginning to threaten the attack, to complete an excellent spell of 2 for 20.
Despite those few early chances, Kings captain, Azam Yakub, kept good control of his bowling attack and had restricted the opposition 116 for 5 in 16 overs. But Kings were left shaking their heads after the let off A. Singh who proceeded to register a late inning cameo of 33 runs off just 16 balls to push Warriors to a fighting 169 for 7 in their allotted 20 overs.
In their reply, Kings were pegged back by a good Warriors bowling attack as wickets kept falling at regular intervals. Only Govind Persaud, the centurion from the previous match, showed some resistance before he went via a brilliant catch at backward point, and Alvin Gobin were the two batsmen to get into double figures as Kings batting collapsed to 57 all out. Kings though, have shown that ability to compete against a senior Warriors team and will certainly get better.
