The SG Crimsons bounced back after a disappointing loss in their previous match against the SG Stars. Playing the SG Crescents on the 26th of February 2018 at IA, the Crimsons won the toss and elected to field.
The SG Crimsons countered a quick onslaught of runs by snaring three Crescent wickets with 48 runs on the board off just 5.4 overs. With a fourth wicket and the score at 65/4, the Crimsons seemed to have reined things back and looked to be in good position to curtail the Crescents for a score below 130. The burly forms of Aryaman Uchil and Anantha Krishna had different ideas as the pair unleashed a flurry of hard hitting and helped themselves to scores of 51 (44) and 42 (26) respectively as the Crescents ended their innings on 162/6. The pair had hit a total of 8 sixes between them. The Crimsons bowlers sharing the wickets while Kenneth Waiswa doing well to keep an economy of 5.5 in his 4 overs.
The SG Crimsons broke with routine and sent the aggressive Chetan Suryawanshi to partner Rohan Rangarajan to try and take advantage of the power play and the excellent batting conditions. The ploy didn’t work as Suryawanshi was out just two balls in when he failed to clear the mid on fielder off Amjad Mahboob. With the score at 3/1 in just 0.3 overs and with Prasheen Param struggling from a hip injury sustained while fielding, the chase did not look like it was going to end well for the SG Crimsons. Navin Param came into deputise for his brother and the two youngsters in the middle took control and showed impressive batsmanship as they stole quick singles and put away loose balls with authority, not letting the Crescents bowlers settle. Rohan Rangarajan was finally run out at 42 (29) in the 11th over , leaving Crimsons on 97/2. Just as the chase was looking to go the Crimsons way, two quick wickets lost in the space of a run saw the Crimsons now sitting on a precarious 98/4 in the 12th over. Navin Param being dismissed for 47 (40) in the 14th over and the score at 112/5 looked like the Crescents had now won back the initiative. The injured Prasheen Param joined the stocky Manoj Yadav out in the middle and put on an excellent batting display with the latter scoring a quickfire and bold 37* (22) which saw the Crimsons home in 18.2 overs and winning by 5 wickets.
Anantha Krishna from the SG Crescents bringing some joy to his team by being nominated player of the match for his 42 (26) and 2 wicket haul. The SG Crimsons now boast 3 wins out of 4 in the group stages and sit comfortably on top of the pile while the SG Crescents and SG Stars have a win each.
