Macgregor Maniacs v Master Blasters
Warehouse 2021/22
Round 3 T20 Group B
14 November 2021 at Kianawah Park 3
A beautiful blue sky, a lovely breeze, green grass and plenty of it on KP3, for the clash between the Maniacs and Master Blasters on Sunday. The toss was won by Blasters who chose to field. Play got underway around six minutes late while umpire Troy Burns retrieved the inner ring fielding discs pilfered by a neighbouring field.
Disaster reared its ugly head early as the Menz boys found their way back to the pavilion within the first seven balls. Brett Nolan and Khaleel Waqar steadied the ship with some judicious running and took the score to 32 before Brett was well caught on the boundary trying to force the pace, or was he just done with running singles? 😁
More disaster as Ahzar Khalid joined Khaleel and appeared to injure a hamstring attempting a quick single. Although, his movement was severely restricted, Ahzar chose to bat on (🤔) eventually calling for a runner. After a run-a-ball, 23 run partnership, Ahzar perished from a good boundary catch; Maniacs 4/55 at the half-way mark. Jake Keeble and Sajeeb Saha added 16 from 14 for the 8th wicket but the remaining 5 wickets contributed just 14 from 31 as the Maniacs crumbled to be all out for 85 from 17.3 overs. For the Blasters, Faraz Sumro and Adil Malik grabbed three wickets each and in the field, Ankush Palta took two good catches as did Rehan Bukhari.
It seems that low scoring games always have a twist. Brett Nolan bowled beautifully capturing the top three batsmen for just 8 runs in his four overs, with the assistance of some good catching from Josh Menz, the injured Ahzar at slip, and Khaleel taking a skier to remove the dangerous Palta at the end of the ninth over; Blasters 3/39.
Three balls later, Andrew Hopkinson removed skipper Dewan Khan - great catch by Sabahat Mahmood on the boundary - and Blasters were 4/41. Faraz Sumro and Adil Malik carefully compiled 12 from the next 22 balls before Mohammed Saleem snuck through Malik’s defences to make it 5/53. With the cat, well and truly amongst the pigeons, Maniacs moved in.
13.4 overs: Josh Menz’s throw was too good for Toseef; 6/56.
14.6 overs: Saleem grabbed a sharp C&B; 7/64.
15.4 overs: Waseem Khatree, got under a high one to give Ben Menz his first; 8/68
16.4 overs: Waseem again with a straight throw to Khaleel for a run out; 9/73.
16.5 overs: A catch behind by Khaleel off Saleem sealed the deal; Blasters all out 73.
Thank you to Allauddin Mohammed who answered an S.O.S to replace Ahzar on the field.
