It’s even stevens after Tuskers United wins 2nd final

Tuskers United has once again showed that a lot of heat is still left in the team as they defeated Stormers by 17 runs in the second final of CCL6. By virtue of this win for the Tuskers, the third final, or the grand finale as it can be called now, has become the decider where the champions of CCL will be decided.

It is always difficult to chase down a target on a big final and that may be the reason why Tuskers United captain Aneesh decided to bat first when he won the toss. A loss today would have been all curtains for the Tuskers as they were already behind 1-0 to the Stormers in the best of three finals. A determination to hold the fort and move forward slowly saw the Tuskers openers starting in slow motion. However the opening partnership of Ajeesh and Saravanan didn’t prosper for long as Renjith Kumar removed the latter for an individual score of 7. Captain Aneesh who joined Ajeesh was also unable to move the scoreboard forward and fell for a paltry 3 runs. Ajeesh, Tuskers’ highest run getter was not at his best and he also fell cheaply. Abhin showed some promise and played a good hand of 15 runs. When it appeared that the Tuskers United was going to set a below par score in the second final, as the team made only 32 runs in 6 overs, a twist in the tale occurred. A powerful performance from Ben, where he made 31 runs from just 12 balls, fired up the scoring and in the seventh over alone Tuskers made 28 runs to take the score to 60 for 4. Big hitting from the lower middle order took the Tuskers’ total to a robust 89 for the loss of 6 wickets. While Binish took 3 wickets, Renjtih Kumar, Noble and Anas chipped in with one each.

Severe thrashing they had received in the death overs appeared to have dented the spirits of the Stormers’ players. They were wavered in their chase from the beginning itself and lost both their openers, Renjith Kumar and captain Ranjith E, in the second over of the innings itself. None of the batsman in the top order fired for the Stormers. Joseph and Bhasid showed some spirit and made whole hearted attempt to save the sinking ship, but their valiant efforts were thwarted by some excellent fielding of Tuskers. While Joseph was run out, Bhasid was brilliantly caught by CCL’s fielding superstar Ajeesh. A big heave by Bhasid that took the cricket ball to the skies, destined otherwise to land outside the fence for a six, was caught by an acrobatic Ajeesh by extending his hands across the ropes, while his feet stood stationed firmly inside the playing field and the ball obliging by falling safely into his hands. At the end, Stormers was able to make only 72 runs with the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 10 overs.

Ben was adjudged the Man of the Match.

The grand finale of CCL6 will be played on 5th of February, Thursday.

SCOREBOARD