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Martians outplayed Hornbills with a 6 wickets win.
Led by Biju Pillai, an outstanding performance by Martians helped them to win by 6 wickets against Hornbills at Hainault Recreational Ground on Saturday. It was their much awaited first victory in UKMCL 2016 league.
Scores: Hornbills CC all out 106 (29 Overs), Martians 107/4 (19.3 Overs).
Earlier on the day, Hornbills won the toss and elect to bat first. A well disciplined and methodically implemented game plan by Martians took control of the game from the beginning. Hornbills openers Kevin and Rakesh were determined and started carefully without making any attempt to take risks against the opening bowlers Midlaj and Vijay. But Navas gave Martians the first break through by removing Rakesh (5). Hornbills had great expectations on their ace batsman Ameer (3) but his innings didn’t last long. Rejulesh took a stunning catch of Midlaj delivery which ended the short innings of Ameer.
Arun (41) was the only batsman dominated the bowlers by hitting a couple of huge sixes in the middle of the innings but fell to a well-judged catch taken by Midlaj (5-1-12-1) of the bowling of Kiji (4-2-8-2). Other batsmen were struggling to build partnerships against a well-disciplined Martians bowling attack. Raju and Sreekumar fought hard towards the back end of the innings, but finally Hornbills innings ended at 106 all out in 28.4 overs. It was a combined team effort by Martians bowlers who supported each other and maintained their consistency throughout the match. Some of the noticeable performances were Navas (5-0-11-2), Sanesh (4-0-7-2), Rejulesh (1-1-0-2). The bowlers were supported by excellent fielding especially by Vijay and Midlaj throughout the match.
After lunch Martians opened their batting with Nasweeph & Mithun. Both batsmen were determined to play long innings and started to build the partnership slowly. But, Nasweeph (5) trapped in front of the wicket by Ameer in the 3rd over. The other end ever dependable Mithun with his classy and elegant shots took on Hornbills bowlers with ease. He played shots all over the ground and helped Martians to build a healthy partnership with Liju who played a patient innings to support Mithun. By the time Liju departed, Martians were well in command at 63-2. Navas (15) replaced Liju anchored at one end and the duo took the match away from hornbills. It was Mithun’s (59 not out) second half century in consecutive innings. Martians finished the game in 19 overs at the loss of 4 wickets.
Reported by – Muhammed Arafath
