Royal Strikers beats Rising Stars, books final berth to meet Master Blasters

In the final league match of CCL7, Royal Strikers has beaten Rising Stars to enter the finals, where they will play against the Master Blasters. Winning the toss and fielding first, the Strikers restricted the Stars to 53 runs and then chased down the target in the 8th over.

Sumesh and Vishnu opened the innings for the Rising Stars. From the start Strikers’ bowlers were miserly in giving away runs. There were plenty of dot balls and when runs came, they were in singles and doubles. In an effort to up the scoring rate, both openers fell, gifting their wickets to Rageesh. Bhasid and Baji took charge and moved the score board forward, though they too were unable to score in boundaries and sixes. In the end the Stars made 53 runs in their allotted 10 overs, with the loss of 3 wickets. Rageesh scalped 2 wickets for the Strikers.

Pursuing a target of 54 runs in 10 overs, Royal Strikers started their innings with Latheesh and Mithun. In the second over of the innings itself Latheesh made his intentions clear by hitting Sumesh for two consecutive sixes. The Stars bowlers fought back by taking wickets; Baji, the captain took 2 wickets in one single over. However, the loss of wickets at regular intervals didn’t hamper Strikers march towards victory and in over number 8 they won by 5 wickets.

Rageesh is the Man of the Match.