Team Pakistan lead the series 1-0. Photos courtesy: Adeel Khan Photography
A breezy evening, the sun setting below the horizon, and a big crowd slowly filling the ground was a perfect atmosphere for game one of the First-American Indo-Pak tournament.
On a slow and low pitch with a heavy outfield, Hiten Patel, captain of Team India won the toss and chose to bowl first, knowing it would be easier to chase once a target is set instead of having to set one. The outfield was heavy and the pitch was slow because of rains before the game so it was a difficult pitch to bat on. The opening batsmen started the inning cautiously. Team India’s opening bowlers Hiten Patel and Vimal Lad bowled with great control and accuracy.
In the 3rd over, Hiten got the wicket of Nousherwan Adil with a back of the length delivery. Despite losing an early wicket, Abdullah stayed aggressive and hit a couple of mighty sixes, he was joined by youngster Maaez Veqar who played the anchor role and kept rotating the strike to keep the scoreboard ticking. Once the spinners came onto bowl, both Jaymin Goswami and Chintan Patel strangled the batsmen with tight bowling. Rotating the strike became difficult, and in the process, Team Pakistan kept losing wickets.
At the end of 12th over, Team Pakistan was merely 65 for 5, and it seemed as though they would struggle to post a decent total. Both Abdullah Syed and Jahanzeb Alam departed in quick succession. The pressure got the best of the new batsman Saroosh Nadeem who got himself run-out attempting a suicide run. Maeez held on to one end and was joined by Naeem Arif, as both went on to rebuild the innings.
Team India will be looking to level the series when the two teams meet today.
Maaez soon perished attempting to flick a delivery by Jessy Singh and was adjudged LBW. The next man in was Umer Farooq and he had plans of his own to deal with the surmounting pressure. He started his innings with a mighty six over deep mid-wicket off Rimal Patel. Naeem played a mature and a disciplined inning, and kept giving the strike to the in-form Umer who was looking to hit everything out of the park. He had an early reprieve when he was dropped off the bowling of Jessy at long-on, but he made sure he capitalized on the chance hitting three more mighty sixes; once walking down the track to Jessy and merely flicking his wrist to send the ball flying into the orbit, and in the next over crashing Jaymin over deep midwicket taking his tally to 37 off just 23 balls.
In the end Team Pakistan was able to post a defendable total of 133 in 20 overs, which seemed par on such a difficult wicket. For Team India, Rimal Patel and Vaibhav Vartak came out to open the innings, they both started cautiously and were kept in check by Team Pakistan captain Tamoor Haider and pacer Noman Iftikhar bowling tight lines. Both openers were watchful and kept rotating the strike while attempting a shot every now and then which was proving to be difficult. In the sixth over, Rimal was dropped at point off the bowling of Tamoor and took it as signal to go for big hits.
Next over spin was introduced from the other end as well, with Nisaar Ahmed coming to bowl. Both Vaibhav and Rimal opened their arms and Nisaar went for 11 in his first over courtesy of a huge six over wide long-off by Vaibhav. By the end of 7th over Team India was 40 for the loss of no wickets, and it seemed like they would ease to the target. It was the introduction of Nousherwan Adil that turned the game over its head. Adil bowled Rimal on the 4th ball of his first over and had Anvit Trapasia stumped on his last delivery courtesy of lightening glove work by Jahanzeb Alam who was standing up to the stumps. The veteran Kunal Baride joined Vaibhav and they both started rebuilding the innings rotating the strike while Kunal hit Nisaar for a six over deep mid-wicket to take the pressure off and keep the run rate in check.
Nisaar was replaced by Saroosh Nadeem to bowl his left-arm spin and he was greeted by another mighty six over covers by Vaihav who looked in supreme touch. Saroosh had the last laugh though as he had Vaibhav LBW the very next ball and the pendulum again swung in Team Pakistan’s favor.
The large crowd were fully entertained at the first game.
In came the big hitting Neal Patel wasting no time and hit Saroosh for a six over deep mid-wicket the very first ball. Adil was unfazed by all the six hitting and had Neil Patel and Hiren Patel both bowled in his very next over. The game was in balance, with Team India still needing 33 runs of 4 overs with 5 wickets in hand. Well set Kunal Baride was joined by Team India captain Hiten Patel, both players ran fast and tried to bring the total down to a manageable one. In the end team India needed 20 off 2 overs when the ball was given to Noman Iftikhar for his final over, Hiten powered the first ball to deep midwicket running 2 off it. The second ball Hiten launched into the orbit hitting a monster 6 over long on, bringing the Indian crowd to its feet.
Team India now needed 12 off 10 balls and it all seemed over. But the game had one last twist, Hiten attempted another shot off Noman the very next ball and was caught by Abdullah at wide long-on. Two balls later Kunal also attempted to hit Noman for a six over mid-wicket and was caught by Maaez to leave Team India needing 10 off the final over.
The final over was bowled by team Pakistan vice-captain Adnan Naseem and he showed his experience and guile bowling with good pace and not letting the new batsmen Chintan Patel and Jessy Singh get underneath any of his deliveries. Team Pakistan sealed a thriller of a game and the crowd was treated to some wonderful cricket game at the beautiful Laurel Hill Park.
Nousherwan Adil was adjudged the Man-of-the-Match for his brilliant spell, taking 4 wickets and giving up just 12 runs in his allotted 4 overs.
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