Day 3 - The action continues

After an exciting start to the tournament last week, this week promised some great action in the form of the biggest rivals going head to head. The weather being at its merciful best, things were pretty comfortable on the field. 

Day 3 started off with LBC facing Sholay Reloaded and Flame meeting Dabangg. This is how the action unfolded.

LBC v/s Sholay Reloaded - The pied piper of NHST 

This was a thriller of a match with the game going down till the last ball of the match. LBC won the toss and elected to field. Girish, who started the proceedings with the ball, gave LBC a dream start with a wicket off the very first ball!! Sumit was bowled out for a duck! However, Sholay weren't going to give in that easily. Ratnesh came in and ensured things wont be that easy for LBC. A nice partnership between Ratnesh and Ashish was brewing before Ratnesh was finally run out after making a decent 40. He had come to the rescue of the team yet again. Ashish on the other hand provided stability to the innings and made sure to rotate the strike constantly. Abhinav came in after Ratnesh and hit some meaty blows..a 6 and a couple of 4s and Sholay ended their innings at 82 off their 10 overs. A competitive total indeed.

LBC began their innings similar to Sholay, losing out Amit Anand in the 2nd over itself. However, Sachin and Piyush stabilized their innings with a 50 run partnership between them. But, things started going the Sholay way after their partnership broke. Ratnesh took the danger man Piyush out of the action and things went a bit sour for LBC. With some decent bowling from Sholay, they made sure there weren't many fireworks from LBC. With 15 required off the last over, things seemed to be out of reach for LBC. Girish and Manish were on the crease and they had to face the final over which was a female over. Just when it looked as if LBC would not be able to make it, there was rain! No..not the conventional one...it started raining wides! Not one, not two, not three..but 8 big ones. Girish commanded the length of the wide and his wish was "granted" as if the bowler was hypnotized. He truly became The Pied Piper of NHST mesmerizing the bowler and made her bowl according to his will. Finally, they were able to reach the target off the last ball much to the anguish of the Sholay Reloaded team. They complained about the manner in which the last over was played, specifically over the antics of Girish, but hey.. this is N-P-L!!..things are not soo goody goody around here..its war! 

With 2 out 2 in the bag, LBC were a serious contender for the finals.

Flame v/s Dabang - Munni badnaam ho gayi (phir se!)

With both teams losing their games last week, they were both hungry for blood. Flame won the toss and elected to bat first. The ever dependable Saroj Pradhan started off the proceedings with Ashish Jain. They began the way they usually do....scurrying for singles and doubles at whatever chance they could get. However, Pravar got Ashish out in the 2nd over of the match. Deepak Goel came in next, but went back to the pavillion with the same speed as he had come in. He was dismissed after making just 4 runs on the board. Things were looking down for Flame, when out came their captain Ramashankar; and played a captain's innings. With the occasional boundary and loads of running between the wickets, he was able to steer his team to safety. The number of wides and extras given by Dabangg did not help the situation as well. Ramashankar and Raghu helped the team get to a competitive total of 89..the highest in the tournament so far!

Dabangg started off nervously with their opener Nawajish getting run out after making only 1 run. Shashi too went back after scoring 7 measly runs. With both their openers failing to fire, they needed someone to stay there and keep the required run rate in check. However, Flame, with their immaculate bowling, tied up Dabangg and ensured that they dont go all "Salman Khan" on them. With wickets falling regularly, it was soon a matter of time before Flame finish things off pretty comfortably. They restricted Dabangg to a paltry 51. Dabangg guys -- Munni wont be happy at all!