In form Shaan Leads to an Easy Victory for Griffins

The man in form Shaan registered his third consecutive fifty in all competition and Griffins marched to an easy victory over Phoenix CC. The morale boosting crucial win keep Griffins in the hunt for the UKMCL trophy, first time in five years. The 9 wickets win, in a rain curtailed match of 30 overs, cut the gap with the leaders Friend11 to 11 points with a do or die match remaining between the teams • Shaan scored third successive fifty plus score in all competition • First wicket scored 100 run for Griffins • The win was the biggest for Griffins in terms of balls left • Stanlee led the bowling attack with three wickets • Phoenix reduced to 4/25 after 10 overs • It was 7th win for Griffins in 10 matches Griffins CC 115/1 15.2 overs (Shaan 73 not out, Vijay 32, Venu 1/12) beat Phoenix CC 113 all out 29.5 overs (Suni 39, Gino 22, Stanlee 3/12, Manu Nath 2/6) by 9 wickets. Another gem of innings from the Griffins opener Shaan and a dominant bowling performance from the bowlers made an easy walkover against a depleted Phoenix CC. Shaan and Vijay produced another dazzling opening wicket partnership of 106, the first of such a stand in the current edition of UKMCL, set up the biggest victory both in terms of balls and wickets remaining. Shaan cut to lose with two ferocious fours in either side of the wicket in the third over of the innings and since then he did not look back. The opening pair continued exactly where they stopped against MCC. Vijay once again enjoyed to play second fiddle by nudging singles and rotating strikes to Shaan in order to continue the onslaught. There were crunching drives along the ground, strong bottom hand punches to the boundary and impeccable pull shot over the midwicket for six in an electrifying innings of 73 off just 39 deliveries in a much coveted batting display. The innings was filled strokes all across the Rusking Park constitutes four fours and six sixes. While Shaan was in a mood to throw bat for everything asking run rate was never a matter to be concerned. The first wicket 50 runs reached in the second delivery of ninth over whereas the next 50 came from just 28 balls. Shaan reached fifty of 32 deliveries with a tap to the square leg boundary off Venu. Though he was hit by a rising ball on his elbow the batsman wheeled the ball outside the park and most of the over the air. Vijay bowled while he tried to cut a straight delivery from Venu when was on 32 just eight runs shy of victory. Shaan completed the formality in the next over with massive sixer over the midwicket boundary that sailed into the bushes. The bowling unit deserves the no less credit, though there were more impressive individual performance on the later stage of the match. New ball pair, Stanlee and Abdul Samad, have done their role in an emphatic fashion by not allowing the opposition batters to free their arms. Inviting to bat first the opposition Griffins got a rousing start as the opening bowlers bowled with real venom by utilising the wet pitch and heavy outfield. Odd balls kept jagging unpredictably from good length that made batsmen life difficult. Once Stanlee break the deadlock in the third over of the innings, by getting rid of KR in a fine delivery that moved away from the right handed batsmen only edge to safe pair of hands of Vijay behind the stumps, Phoenix could challenge the might of Griffins in any part of the game. The initial burst by the new ball duo stuttered the opposition top order and Phoenix were reeling at 25/4 after 10 overs incisive overs of great pace and swing bowling. The only top order batsmen showed some resistance was the left handed opener Gino who scored a resolute 22 from 50 deliveries before he caught at deep off Kannan. The departure of Gino at the 20th over looked Pheonix will be bundled out for anything less than 75. But a late cameo by No.10 batsman Suni pushed the total beyond 100 before being caught and bowled by Abdul in the penultimate delivery. Suni scored an entertaining 39 off 33 deliveries and add some valuable runs to the team total with the last two wickets. Griffins used nine bowlers in the match and Stanlee was the pick of them by a haul of 3/12 from six overs he bowled in the opening spell. Captain Manu and Abdul supported well with two wickets each. The former returned with an impressive figure of 2/6 off four overs while the latter pocketed two wickets and leaked only 16 runs from his 6 overs. Fayiz and Kannan penned their name in the bowling chart with one wickets apiece and Manilal failed to return to crease before Vijay, who had an excellent day behind the wicket, whipped the bails off in response to the athletic efforts of Fayiz at the deep square leg. Phoenix scored 53 runs in the last 10 overs that gave the score line some respect. There were nine single-digit scores in Phoenix innings shows the dominance of Griffins bowlers. By Griffins Media Team