Indiranagar Terminated

Ashith accepts the applause from his team-mates after 

reaching his first century in KSCA league.

 Varun raises his bat as he walks back after scoring his maiden ton.

12th August, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: Playing their third match of the KSCA Metro Shield 2012, team IISc ousted Indiranagar Cricketers to record yet another monstrous win. An unprecedented pair of tons in one innings - Ashith's marathon unbeaten 149 and Varun's blistering 125 - helped IISc post a staggering total of 386/3 in 50 overs. It's the highest ever in IISc cricket history. Tight bowling, some safe catching and couple of direct-hits served to collapse the hapless guests for a paltry total of 201 in 42.4 overs.

Indiranagar won the toss and put IISc to bat anticipating rain at noon. Salil as usual provided a rock solid start as he played his way on to an unflustered 52 off 54 balls. However, the flashy Kiran was bowled out early for 13 off 16 balls by an unplayable out-swinger from Nihal. Ashith (149 off 141 balls) came in at one down and had a busy 76-run partnership with Salil until the latter was trapped in front by the left-arm spinner, Vikram. This wicket ushered the brilliant Varun (125 off 89 balls) onto the crease. Soon, Ashith's superlative drives and Varun's unrelenting running between the wickets brought the bowling to the knees and took the fight out of the opposition. The duo put on a resplendent 222-run partnership that has set the bench mark in the annals of IISc cricket.

The butter-fingered Indiranagar fielders managed to drop as many as six catches before Bhagwan came to their rescue by taking Varun's catch at long-on. The cherry on the cake was provided by Vikram Chaturvedi, who blasted an unbeaten 23 off 8 balls to give IISc a strong finish. Indiranagar set off chasing the mammoth total in the only way possible, by going hard at each and every ball. However, Arindam drew first blood, when he made the opener Ramkrishna play in the air and Roy took a well judged catch at mid on. The loss of three quick wickets within a space of 35 runs left the guests reeling at 70/4 in the eleventh over. Opener Prabhu's 56 off 64 balls and Sudarshan's 61 off 80 balls were the only signs of resistance as Indiranagar put up a semblance of a fight. However, a combination of inspired bowling from the experienced Arindam and Debajit and a couple of run outs wiped out the guests for 201.

The gorgeous display of cricket in all three departments of the game in the previous three matches makes IISc Gymkhana the team to beat this season, barring complacency.

Brief scores: (50 overs match)
IISc - 386/3 in 50 overs
(Ashith Shyam 149*, Varun Raturi 125, Salil 52, Vikram Chaturvedi 23*; Nihal 8-0-66-2)
Indiranagar Cricketers - 201 allout in 42.4 overs
(Sudarshan 61, Prabhu Karthik 56, Amreesh Singh 28;
Debajit 6.4-0-26-2, Arindam 10-1-43-3, Kiran 7-1-31-2)

Result: IISc won by 185 runs
Man of the match: Ashith Shyam

In the newspapers:

"Deccan Herald" - URL, jpg

"The Hindu" - URL, jpg
"Times of India" - jpg