Gana shines as IISc clinch humdinger

Ganapathy S. [File photo: 24 February, 2009]

30th May, 2010, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: Ganapathy's attractive and chanceless knock of 95 and Harish's nagging spell of 3/29 helped IISc clinch a humdinger versus Basvangudi Cricket Academy (BCA) by four runs. In what could be easily one of the more celebrated victories of team IISc, they beat an opposition comprising of as many as four second division players and boasting a strong and deep batting line-up.

IISc batted first after a very long time - the last occasion was in the YSR Cup - and were soon in a spot of bother losing their first four wickets with only 29 runs on the board. Ganapathy and Sounik carried out the damage control with elan stitching together a fifth wicket partnership of 126 runs. After Ganapathy was dismissed excruciatingly close to a well-deserved century, Roy played a handy knock to put together another important partnership with skipper Sounik. IISc's innings didn't quite conclude with a flourish but still they had a healthy total of 247 in 45 overs. 

BCA were kept under a tight leash by Teja and Harish  both of whom bowled out their quota of nine overs each in the first 18 overs. Harish in particular bowled his heart out in a spell of metronomic accuracy that got him three important wickets. The pressure thus created kept IISc in the driver's seat with the visitors always playing catch-up. Things changed when the sixth wicket pair of Vineet and Manish came together and started a spirited counter-attack. Both batsmen scored brisk fifties with some audacious strokes and swift running between the wickets. A couple of smart catches in the outfield and some good death bowling from Jaidev and Ashith kept IISc afloat. Finally, with one wicket in hand and needing 5 runs off 5 balls, Abhilash got run-out sending the IISc players into rapturous celebrations.

Brief Scores:

IISc - 247 allout in 45 overs

(Ganapathy 95, Sounik 37, Roy 32, Raman 3/45)

 BCA - 243 allout in 44.2 overs

(Vineet 67, Manish 53, Sukruth 30, Shreyas 27, Harish 3/29, Roy 2/49, Jaidev 2/36)

Result: IISc won by 4 runs

Man-of-the-match: Ganapathy S