Like a Phoenix, Titans arises from the ashes on Baji’s wings

If there was a team that was down in the dumps after the first round of matches ended in the sixth edition of Calpine Cricket League, then it was the Titans. But that has become a thing of the past and today Titans rose from the ashes and crushed the Tuskers United by 6 wickets. In one of the finest innings in CCL, if not the best, Baji hit a record-breaking 14 ball 50 to take Titans to an awe-inspiring win.

Winning the toss Titans’ captain Sandeep decided to field first. Sent into bat Tuskers opened with the left-right batting combination of Ajeesh and Aneesh TA. Both batsmen started cautiously and were content in picking up the ones and twos. But once they got into their groove the batsmen switched their batting style to the cruise mode. Ajeesh was particularly severe on the Titans bowlers and went on to hit his maiden 50 in CCL. Even when he lost his batting partner Aneesh, Ajeesh hardly took his foot off the accelerator and in the company of Abhin and Saravanan he took the score of Tuskers to a very challenging 107 for 2 in 10 overs and remained unbeaten.

108 in 10 overs can certainly be a daunting task in any form of cricket and the Titans knew it very well. They also knew that they can never afford to go slow at any time in their innings and had to go cracking from the first ball itself. Titans experimented with a new opening duo for the purpose and had Baji walking out to bat with Sujith. The intention of the Titans’ think tank in sending Baji to open the innings came to the fore when he hit the first ball of the innings to a long six across the fence. The very next ball was again sent across the fence, this time along the ground for a four. The two balls that followed were once again sent across the line for a four and a six. These big hits were followed by a single. Thus the first five balls Baji faced accumulated 21 runs in total. During his rampage Baji scored his 50 in 14 balls which is a record in CCL, eclipsing 19 balls 50, hit by Ranjith E in the second season of CCL. By the time Baji got out for a well made 59 off 23 balls Titans were closer to a famous victory, but was not completely out of danger. And it was Deepak who hit 2 sixes in the final over to clinch a famous victory for the Titans.

For his monumental innings Baji was adjudged the Man of the Match.

Scoreboard