We arrived at the ground and after looking at the pitch, we definitely thought it’s a slow wicket and the ball is going to keep low. We had discussions whether to bowl or bat first.
We wanted to challenge ourselves so having won the toss we decided to bat first.

Lokesh and Siva opened the innings, they were very watchful and played nice defensive strokes and rotated the strike regularly. As expected, it was a spongy wicket and ball was getting very slow after pitching in and it wasn’t easy to play normal cricketing shots.

Siva waited patiently for a few overs and thought of taking on the bowlers and unfortunately he was caught at mid on. Chandu went at no 3 but soon got out given LBW. Naga walked in at no 4 and tried to build a partnership with Lokesh. Both started rotating the strike after a few tough initial overs and Lokesh decided to go after the bowlers having hit a couple of delightful boundaries. Soon Lokesh got out as the ball took a top edge while Lokesh was playing a big shot. Jatinder walked in at no 5 and got bowled by a good spinning delivery around the legs. Pranjal came in at no 6 and started middling the ball very well but unfortunately got caught at covers as the bat stuck in the ground while playing the shot. Ahmed walked in at no 7 and tried to build a partnership with Naga. Naga got out trying to play a shot after drinks because of a ball that pitched and kept very low. Naeem walked in next and build a good partnership with Ahmed. Both steadied the innings and Ahmed got nicked one delivery to the keeper. Rajeev walked in next and got bowled due to the nature of low bouncing wicket. Eshwar walked in next and he played some very good shots along with naeem to take the score past 100 on a tricky wicket. Eshwar got out soon caught at long off. Tousef walked in next and added few more runs to the total taking the solihull United to 116 all out in 36 overs. This was a good effort by the team considering that the wicket was pretty tough one to bat on.

Bpcc having to chase 117, started steadily but lost quick wickets due to a wonderful opening spell by Rajeev and Chandu. BPCC had a good 6th wicket partnership and at the half way mark they had two set batsmen with 60 runs on the board having lost 5 wickets. After drinks break, Jatinder Singh was introduced into the attack and he provided a much needed breakthrough as a result of wonderfully judged catch by Pranjal at mid on. After that they lost 2 more wickets as a result of deceptive bowling by Pranjal who was very close to getting his second hat-trick of the season. Pranjal took 2 more wickets to bowl out BPCC under 75 runs thanks to great fielding commitment from everyone in the team. And special mention to Naeem who took couple of great sharp catches at covers.

Overall it was praised as a low scoring thriller by the spectators and everyone watching said they thoroughly enjoyed the match.

One key learning for batsmen on this kind of tricky wicket is always try to play in the V, play with straight bat and do not play cross bat or sweep shots.

I hope we are going to continue such great performances going into the league season from next Sunday onwards and have a great start to the season to continue the winning momentum.

Well played team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V82O9h9C9Ko&t=8918s