Star SC end IISc's juggernaut

13 November 2011, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: Some solid batting from Star Sports Club, Nelamangala aided by some atrocious catching from IISc ended the home team's juggernaut in the ongoing KSCA Metro Shield 2011. Such is the competitive nature of the tournament that owing to this solitary loss, IISc could find themselves out of the fray irrespective of the result of their last super-league match versus Unique CC on 27th November.

Batting first, the visitors were on the offense from the word go. The openers put on 61 runs with Hanumanta Raju (64) in a murderous mood striking boundaries at will. IISc kept taking wickets but never managed to keeping the scoring in check. The seventh wicket pair of Santosh (56) and Manohar (41) put on 68 runs to add to IISc's misery. But the maximum damage on IISc was inflicted by their own butter-fingered catching and fielding - there were a shocking eight dropped catches in the innings. The saving grace for IISc was the efficient spells from spinners Arindam (5/46) and Alok (2/24).

Having made 290 in their last outing, the IISc batting unit may have just acquired some ill-placed complacency. Although the scoring rate was always good, IISc lost far too many wickets than they should have and ultimately found themselves woefully short. Arindam (41) and Varun (39) put up some semblance of fight but in the end it wasn't enough.

IISc play Unique Cricket Club on 27th November in what could be the last match in this year's Metro Shield for both teams.

Brief scores:
Star SC - 265 allout in 50 overs
(Hanumanta 64, Pradeep 36, Santosh 56, Manohar 41, Arindam 5/46, Alok 2/24)

IISc - 176 allout in 33.2 overs
(Arindam 42, Varun 39, Madhusudan 3/33, Sachin 2/65, Pradeep 2/24, Hanumanta 2/41)

Result: Star Sports Club won by 89 runs
Man of the Match: Hanumanta Raju

Newspaper Reports:

"Deccan Herald"