Scorecard:



This was the first ever league game for the Stuttgart Cricket Eagles e.V. The weather was really pleasant and ideal for a cricket match in Sportpark, Karlsruhe when the game between Stuttgart cricket eagles(SCE) and Cricket Lions Karlsruhe (CLK) took off on Sunday, 24th of April. The toss was won by CLK captain and he elected to bat first. The new ball was given to Khawar, the strike bowler of SCE, by Adnan Sadeque, the captain of SCE. The new ball was also shared by Sunil who along with Khawar bowled beautifully from both the ends and got SCE to a great start. It was in the 5th over that the first breakthrough was obtained through a run out from the combined work of Prasanna and Khawar. CLK was a little watchful in the first set of overs and it wasnt long before they lost their second wicket too from a brilliant catch in slips by Ravi off the bowling of Khawar. Then entered the leading run scorer of the league in 2010, Janardhanan of CLK who continued his spectacular form. He started off slowly and cautiously and tried to rotate the strike. It was in the 7th over off Manish when he got going with some juicy full tosses outside off stump. He smashed them for a six over the covers and a boundary over square leg. Manish was taken off the attack and the new ball bowlers continued for a few more overs.
 
Catches win matches, they say. It was extremely evident in this game through the missed catches off Janardhanan. First one was in the 11th over off Khawar when Janardhanan went for a lofted pull shot off a short of a length delivery. It took a top edge and went straight up in the air for the man in mid-on to have a catching practice. But, unfortunately the fielder at mid-on, Parakrama didnt hold on it as the ball bounced on his hands and dropped on the ground. The scoreboard kept ticking and the run-rate was maintained at 6 runs per over and it wasnt long before the next chance came off the bowling of Adnan. A low full toss on the pads was lofted by Janardhanan towards deep midwicket boundary, straight to the hands of the fielder, Nadeem who missed it. Nadeem was also suffering from an injury and it was all the more difficult for him. Janardhanan had scored 8 and 19 runs respectively when the two catches were dropped. Manish was brought back into the attack from the other end and he bowled brilliantly, making the batsman play at each and every delivery outside offstump, keeping it tight and making it difficult to score. It was Sunil who made the break-through with a quick reflex catch off his own bowling. Janardhanan was however still at the crease and looking to capitalise on the missed chances. Wickets kept tumbling at the other end with some short partnerships but it was Janardhanan who scored all the runs and looked more confident as he went on. Manish bagged couple of wickets through his consistent length, which brought back SCE into the game. Janardhanan was in his seventies when the score was 150 for 6 in 27 overs. The bowling from SCE was disciplined and even the ground fielding needs a mentioning. Lot of effort and application were shown by the fielders.
 
It was Nadeem who finally got Janardhanan through a flighted delivery and tempting the batsman to top edge it to be caught by the wicketkeeper, Aamaar. The last few batsmen also tried hitting around and a few clicked and went to boundaries. The last ball of the innings was a little dramatic where a runout by the combined efforts of Adarsh and Sridhar made CLK exactly all out for 225 in 40 overs.
 
Target 226 in 40 overs for SCE 
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The target was 226 in 40 overs for SCE and it didnot look as a daunting target by any means considering how the opposition had batted, except for one man. The openers, Ravi and Prasanna went out to start the chase. The first over saw a boundary over fine leg and a single. The new ball was bouncing, moving around the seam and the afternoon breeze was ideal for the swing bowlers to swing it both ways. It was in the third over when Prasanna missed a ball on his legs, trying to defend it and was judged lbw. Khawar joined Ravi in the middle. They kept ticking the score for a few more overs. Ravi scored a boundary to deep square leg and was looking to keep the chase alive. It wasnt too long before Ravi went for a slogging shot over mid-on and got bowled. Adarsh was sent to join Khawar. The bowlers of CLK need a special mention for not trying too hard or too pacy and struck to their basics of hitting the right length and making the ball move with the seam. Khawar got out to a brilliant out swinging delivery which pitched around the middle stump and swung to take the bails off his off stump. Meanwhile, Adarsh was looking to stop this leakage of wickets by being defensive and playing out the new ball overs. Adarsh either blocked the probing outside off-stump deliveries or left them alone. He held on to one end of the wicket but couldnt help the fall of wickets at the other end. Wickets kept tumbling at rate of every 4 overs, sometimes even lesser. The score was 57 for 6 in 20 overs when the drinks break was called. Some of the wickets were also unlucky for the batsmen. For eg, Sunil was given out lbw when the ball carried a lot of bounce and hit on his thigh over the leg stump. Harish was given out lbw by the umpire when the ball clearly pitched outside legstump for the left handed batsman. Minaz Dipon was judged out unfortunately when the ball had hit his arm guard and was caught.
 
Aamaar and Adarsh went on to continue the chase after the drinks break. Aamaar looked to play shots and connected a few on the leg side. Adarsh looked to block out one end and wanted desperately a partnership with a batsman at the other end. Unfortunately for SCE, that didnot happen as Aamaar soon got out. Nadeem played a few shots and had harish as his runner because of his strain. Harish and Adarsh went for a quick second run and unfortunately, harish could not make it and Nadeem was out. 85 for 8, the scoreboard read then. The Captain of SCE, Adnan walked out to the middle with Prasanna as his runner, looking to change the course of events. The team needed a partnership with Adarsh staying in the middle. It wasnt too long before the captain also got out by being bowled, looking to loft the good length delivery over the mid-on. Manish went in as the last man to join Adarsh. He blocked a few balls and it was a juicy full toss on the pads which did him. He tried to flick it across on the leg side and unfortunately, missed it and got lbw. Thus ended the chase of SCE by getting 98 all out with Adarsh, the last man standing. The valiant effort of Adarsh (14 runs off 59 balls) couldnt help the team win as there were lack of partnerships at the crease.
 
Overall, the batting effort of SCE was ordinary. The crucial 95 runs and the tight bowling of Janardhan of CLK made him the Man-of-the-Match.