Titan

Slippery When Wet

Walt H. Rambaransingh | Date 08/14/16

On a cloudy & occasionally rainy day, the Titans continued their 2016 South Florida Premiere League 20 over campaign after winning game 1 comfortably. Game 2 of the 2016 SFPL 20 over regular season would be played against Atlantic CC at MAQ Ground. The team looked to use their confidence from game 1 going into game 2. Titans CC won the toss and elected to bowl first given the wet outfield and slippery pitch conditions. The game was reduced to a 15 over affair due to the late start time due to weather issues.

Krishna & Andre opened the bowling. The breakthrough came in Andre’s 2nd over which was the team’s 4th over when 3 wickets fell in the span of 4 balls. The first wicket was another clinical run out by Nathan. The second wicket was an easy catch to Errol at slip. The third wicket was a high driven ball to long-on where Tanmay took a difficult catch (which he made look easy). The 4th wicket fell in the 6th over from a direct hit run-out by Tanmay. It is notable that between overs 3.2 and 5.2, the Titans took 4 wickets and only conceded 2 runs. Tanmay & Nathan were the first change bowlers. Tanmay continued his miserly bowling from game 1 with a 3 over spell that included a maiden over & only allowed 7 runs (4 of which were wides). Nathan started a bit expensive in his first over but was able to bring it back to efficient bowling in overs 2 & 3 and also scalped the important wicket of the remaining opening danger batsman (via a good catch from Naga). Nathan also added to his run-out stats by providing a superb run-out in the 14th over (giving him 2 total in the game and 3 overall for the 2 games in the season so far). Errol & Walt were 2nd change bowlers and just got to bowl 1 over each due to the reduced 15 over game. Walt bowled the 13th over and picked up 2 wickets in his first 3 balls with Tiki taking a popped up catch parallel to the wicket and also providing a stumping. Andre took his 3rd wicket in the 14th over and Walt took the opposition’s final wicket with the first ball of the 15th over via another stumping from the wicketkeeper Tiki Singh. Bowling highlights included Andre’s 3 wickets and Walt’s 3 wickets (from a total of 7 bowled balls). Fielding highlights included 3 run-outs (2 by Nathan & 1 by Tanmay) along with solid catches from Tanmay & Naga. At the end of the innings, Atlantic CC scored 71 runs all out in 14.1 overs. Titans CC Bowling details of the day are below:

Krishna – 3 overs, 1 maiden, 14 runs, 0 wickets.
Andre- 3 overs, 0 maidens, 18 runs, 3 wickets.
Tanmay- 3 overs, 1 maiden, 7 runs, 0 wickets.
Nathan- 3 overs 0 maidens, 23 runs, 1 wicket.
Errol - 1 over, 0 maidens, 4 runs, 0 wickets.
Walt – 1.1 overs, 0 maidens, 2 runs, 3 wickets.

Prateek & Dalip opened the batting. Even though the target was small, the run chase would be made a bit difficult due to the still somewhat slippery pitch. In the fourth over, Tiki was the first to lose his wicket with only 17 runs on the scorecard. After a brief flourish of back to back 6s in the 6th over by Dalip, the top order had a bit of a collapse losing 3 wickets in the space of 2 overs while only scoring 6 runs over the same time period. Nathan & Chucky then entered the game and settled down the batting chase getting the team to within 8 runs of victory when Nathan unfortunately lost his wicket. Naga replaced Nate at the crease & he & Chucky scored the remaining runs with Chucky hitting a splendid 6 to end the game. The chase of 72 came to an end after 12.3 overs. Titans CC win by 5 wickets.

The Titans’ 2nd game of their South Florida Premiere League 20 over campaign displayed good fielding & bowling. Bowling highlights included 3 wicket hauls for Andre & Walt while fielding highlights included 3 run-outs (2 by Nathan & 1 by Tanmay) and confident catches by Tanmay & Naga. There were no true batting highlights to embrace from this game but Dalip & Chuck did just enough to help us get to the finish line. The fielding & bowling were the true highlights of the game while the squad realizes that we need more patience in the batting department especially when the original asking run rate at the beginning of the chase was less than 5 runs an over. The squad & skipper Andre will look to accentuate the fielding & bowling positive attributes & learn the lessons from the batting miscues.