Claim seven wickets among them as MCA thump Cadence Cricket Academy by 9 wickets

Holders, Maharashtra Cricket Association’s under-13 outfit thumped Cadence Cricket Academy by nine wickets in the first semi-final of the Cadence under-13 Cricket championship, at the latter’s ground in Mundhwa, here on Thursday.

In what could be termed as a repeat of last year’s semi-finals, wherein Cadence Cricket Academy did give some fight to the same opponents. This year the Cadence turned out to be a mere pedestrians as their innings was folded for a mere 90 runs and the state under-13 outfits cantered past the target in 16.2 overs to make it to the final of this 7th edition of the championship for the second year in succession.

Giving the due credit to his boys, the MCA coach F Qaizer said that the win against the strong Chandrakant Pandit Cricket Clinic (CPCC), wherein they chased 250-odd runs was the boost to his boys to set up this victory.

“We did lose to Cadence in the league, but the win against CPCC were we had to chase 250 was the morale booster the boys got,” said Qaizer after the match.

Poor selection of shots by three of their main strikers was the reason behind the downfall of the Cadence, who fell from grace after their win in the quarter-finals against MIG, Mumbai.

“It was sheer poor selection of shots. It was a good beginning with Shinde and Yadav putting on over 36 runs in the first seven overs, but they were pegged down by the spinners. The introduction of spinners brought down the strike rate, this should be the reason for the batsmen to go for some poor shot,” reasoned Harshal Pathak who went to say that the due credit should be given to rival spinners in particular who tied down the batsmen maintaining a fine line and length.

“Blaming it on my batsmen is not just one reason, but the MCA bowlers bowled well,” added Pathak.

The only note worthy point in Cadence batting was openers Nikhil Shinde and Akshay Yadav who played good cricket and added 36 runs for the first wicket. Three of their main batsmen fell victims to rash shots.

After 36 runs on the board off just seven overs, things did look rosy for the hosts, after the spinners were introduced which put the fork in their batting. Both the leg-spinners, Jagdish Zope in particular and Prashant Kore restricted the batsmen and the strike rate was reduced to four an over. This forced the Cadence batsmen to go in for shots, and the poor selection of shots let them off.

Varroc Vengsarkar Academy will take on Vidharba Cricket Association in the other semi-final on Friday at 9.30.

Brief scores

Cadence Cricket Academy 90 (Nikhil Shinde 33, Akshay Yadav 15; Jagdish Zope 4-8, Prashant Kore 3-11, Imran Pathan 2-17) lost to Maharashtra Cricket Association 95-1 (Imran Pathan 42 n.o, Prashant Kore 38, Sagnik Mukherjee 1-23)

Joe Williams/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication