Bhuvi's unbeaten 54 sees BCA Orange home by three wickets

Bhuvi Holds his nerve as BCA Orange survive another Warriors Fight.

For the second time this Aman Grover Trophy weekend , BWCC Team B found themselves in a match where the scorecard told only half the story. After being asked to bat first, BWCC B struggled again to find any rhythm. The wickets came quickly. In the third over by Mohit Turki, Sukhjit punched towards leg gully and got caught by Ahmed Reza, out on 12 runs off 10 deliveries. Amit Kumar followed soon after, getting caught off a lofted shot towards deep mid wicket by Bharat. And when Raja Sukhdeo fell on the first ball of the very next over by Bhuvi, the Warriors were suddenly 26 for 3 in under 6 overs.

Things didn't really improve from there. Dipesh caught & bowled Aman Joshi, and Sameer Malhotra playing one of the rare games this season, got run-out without scoring, there was still some home with Rohit Sharma and Subodh Mahajan on the crease. And then Rohit departed for 13.

47 for 6.

Twenty overs suddenly looked like a long way away. But BWCC B found a way to fight back and at the center of this recovery was a partnership between Subodh and Harry Sukhdeo a 55 runs partnership for the seventh wicket. Subodh dug in, played the situation rather than the scoreboard and began rebuilding an innings that had looked destined to collapse. His 31 from 33 balls became the backbone of BWCC B's score. Harry kept up the pace with Subodh and scored a respectable 21 from 29 balls. More importantly, this partnership pushed BWCC B past the hundred mark. When Harry was finally dismissed with just one ball remaining, the Warriors had reached 102 and as Mohit added the final run, the innings ended at 103 for 7. Not a huge total, but defendable based on Team B's track record and after being 47 for 6, it felt like a total that had been earned rather than given.

BCA Orange didn't get off to the start they wanted. After a good first over where they scored 7 runs, well above the required run-rate, Rajesh Sharma was gone early, caught by Captain Sukhjit Singh off Samba Siva Tiyyagura and then after a few deliveries, Samba stuck again and Dipesh sent the ball with a top-edge towards Mohit Gandhi and suddenly, at the end of the over, BCA Orange found themself on 9/2. The Warriors had the opening they needed.

Sumit Singh and Bhuvi tried to settle things down, but the pressure remained and Sumit eventually fell for 16 when he attempted a big hit towards Mid Wicket off a delivery by Subodh. Rizwan Shaikh, another one playing one of the rare matches this season held the catch with safe hands. But the chase was Alive, Bhuvi batted through everything that followed on the other end, not with a flurry of boundaries and not with reckless hitting, but with patience and time. The kind of innings that can quietly win a cricket match.

Bhuvi abosrbed the pressure, found runs when they were available and refused to give BWCC the wicket they desperately needed, and at the same time, having been dropped twice himself, made BWCC pay the price for the lives he was given. He reached his half centry from 54 balls, finishing unbeated on 54 with three sixes.

Not to say that the innings was smooth for BCA Orange. Aman Joshi produced one of the outstanding bowling performances of the match, taking 3 wickets for just 17 runs from his four overs. He took care of Ahmed Reza, Aman Sharma and Ninad Vartak, all of them caught.

BWCC fielded well, Rizwan held two catches, Subodh held two catches, Sukhjit, Mohit, Rohit and Sameer also played their part by holding on to what they received, but catches also cost them a lot. Two catches dropped within a matter of a few deliveries, giving two lives to Bhuvi, the wicket they needed the most. The warriors were still in it, as BCA had lost 6 wickets by the 17th over. With two overs left, BCA needed 10 runs to win, and the 19th over went to Samba. Anything can happen, but BCA had Bhuvi at bat and he finished the match in style, a sixer off of Samba's third delivery of the 19th over. Three wickets, nine balls remaining, that was the margin.

For BCA Orange, it was another victory but for BWCC B, it was another match where the fight was far greater than the final result suggested. As things may come down the net run-rate at the end, BWCC B did a great job and lowering the NRR for both the BCA teams, making them work for every run, even though never quite able to land the final punch.