An alarmed win for EMCC over the enthusiastic Martians!!

A fighting loss for the new born Martians in their opening match of the UKMCL 2016 season saw champions EMCC win 

by 40 runs.  Led by Biju Pillai, Martians played some positive and fearless cricket in Hainault Recreation Ground on 

Saturday the 23rd April against the experience opponents in their first ever appearance in the UKMCL . 

Scores [EMCC 210/8 (35 overs), Martians 170 /

A patient and outstanding innings from the promising malayalee young cricketer Akash Raji 98 (10x4, 1x6) helped 

EMCC to build a decent total. From the start of his innings Akash was cruising up at one end and the other end 

was struggling to find the rhythm to build partnerships. It was aggressive and economic bowling performance by Mithilaj 

and Tobin during their first spell; put EMCC on the back foot. Mithilaj 36/3 led from the font for Martians bowling attack 

and Tobin backed up with his very economical spell of 14/0 from 7 overs. Akash started building up partnership with 

Anoop, but Mithilaj struck at the right time by taking the wicket of Anoop with an amazing Yorker. Until Shiya started 

cutting loose on the crease, EMCC graph was not trending up much promising.  Precious contributions from Akash, Shiya 

and Anandu towards the end of the innings helped EMCC to set a target of 211 to win for Martians. EMCC led by Riyaz, 

called the coin correctly earlier on the day decided to bat first.

Martians opened innings with Nasweeph and Navas, but experienced Sujith gave EMCC an early breakthrough by 

removing Navas in his first over without letting the batsman to trouble the scoreboard. Biju and Nasweeph started to 

steady the innings without further loss, but the pitch played a vital role which prevent them from accelerating the score. 

Martians lost their second wicket at the 15th over when, left armor Akash struck with his first ball made Biju dragging the 

ball back onto the wickets. Naseef and Mithun continued to build the partnership and steadily accelerated the innings with 

occasional boundaries. 

Rejulesh joined Nasweeph after the departure of Mithun (21) and the duo started the counter attack on EMCC bowlers. 

Nasweeph and Rejulesh played some excellent shots to the fence which took EMCC on the back foot. At some stage 

Martians started to believe that Rejulesh with his current form with Nasweeph can pull out an outstanding win for 

Martians. Nasweeph completed his well-deserved and disciplined half century. Akash struck again removing Nasweeph 

57 (5x4, 1x6) in the 31st over and Rejulesh departed immediately with an aggressive innings of 34 (4x4, 1x6). But 

Martians never gave up their hopes as Arafath 21 (1x4, 2x6) in just 10 balls took over the onslaught from his predecessors 

with 2 sixes in one over and added 26 runs with Muhsin in just 16 balls to the score board to finish Martians innings at 

170 / 8. 

Even with the loss, Martians exhibited some positive attitude to play fearless cricket with a well-disciplined approach. 

As usual, champions showed their experience and dedication to the game to register their first victory of the season. Well 

played EMCC.