Titan

Blood Sweat And Tears In Paradise

Prateek Singh

On an almost perfect day for cricket, Titans took the field against Paradise cricket club. With the pitch looking like it would play well, Paradise decided to bat first and Titans took the field with two spinners in the side.
The Titans opening pair applied a great amount of pressure early on and stifled the opening batsmen who survived 6 overs without getting too many runs off the bat.
That was the point where the slide started. Paul Ramkissoon had two batsmen stumped in the same over. DK came in to replace a very economical Krishna and was rewarded with an early wicket in his second over when he had one of the opening batsmen stumped.
The attack soon moved to spin on both ends and Deo and Atif put in a masterful display of spin, both bowling at under 3 an over and picking up 2 and 1 wickets respectively.
They were, however unable to break the flourishing 7th wicket partnership, despite some good LBW shouts and half chances.
Rakesh came into the attack and was expensive but picked up the wickets of both the settled batsmen.
Atul's diving stop and accurate arm wrapped up the innings as he picked up another run out for this season. Paradise ended with a score of 126 with the help of 22 extras.
Here are the bowling figures - 

Paul- 8 overs, 3 maidens, 28 runs, 2 wickets, 3 wides.
Krishna- 5 overs, 0 maiden, 10 runs, 0 wickets, 0 wides.
DK- 5 overs, 0 maidens, 17 runs, 1 wicket, 3 wides.
Deo- 8 overs, 1 maiden, 20 runs, 2 wickets, 7 wides.
Atif- 8 overs, 1 maiden, 22 runs, 1 wicket, 0 wides.
Rakesh- 3 overs, 0 maiden, 29 runs, 2 wickets, 8 wides.

Titans suffered one of their worst batting starts in history by losing 3 wickets without a run on the board within the first 2 overs.
Chucky was out caught at slip while Prateek played on to his stumps and Rakesh was bowled.
Krishna and Dalip settled for a bit, but Dalip soon lost his stumps as well after scoring 24 runs.
At the fall of Krishna's wicket Atul walked in to take guard and looked pretty steady from ball one.
Atul and Paul's partnership was the silver lining for the Titans batting on a day of an otherwise insipid batting performance.
Atul showed great poise and stroked the ball well, while Paul let loose in one over to smack a couple of good looking boundaries.
Paul was soon out trying to hit another one over the infield and his replacement Santosh was bowled soon after.
DK then walked in and seemed to steady the innings with Atul for company. DK went for a flat batted stroke that resulted in a sickening blow to his eye.
The ball went off of the top edge of the bat and straight to the eye socket. DK was taken to the emergency room in an ambulance and at the time of writing this report is back home safe and sound. We wish the Vice Captain a speedy recovery and hope to see him back on the field soon.
Atul and Deo were out soon after and the Titans chase ended 20 runs short at 106. Paul was the highest scorer for Titans at 29 runs.
Titans suffered their first loss in almost 2 months and it should jolt the team out of a lull to be prepared for the playoffs.