The Cows won the toss and elected to bat first sending in Ashan Fonseka and Michael Flowers to deal with the new red ball with Jason Robertson setting the tone immediately with a terrific maiden over which troubled Fonseka. Robertson and his new ball partner Anoop Kotwale had the ball moving prodigiously in the first 5 overs and Kotwale was rewarded with the big wicket of Fonseka 4 (12), clean bowled in the 4th over with the score at 15-1.
Cows Captain Joe Ninan then joined Flowers in the middle and the pair saw off the new ball effectively. Flowers 13 (20) didn’t last much longer, however, as he attempted to up the scoring rate but only managed to find the safe hands of Shivam Sachdeva at backward point after chasing a widish delivery from second change bowler Seemant Raju in the 8th over. With the score at 43-2 Mayur Deuskar, in tremendous form, came to 15 (8) the middle to join Ninan.
The pair did a terrific job adding 103 runs for the 3rd wicket. An excellent captains knock from Ninan 73 (57) eventually came to an end in the 21st over when he was caught and bowled by Penguin captain Robertson returning for a second spell.
Sameer Kahn 18 (13) joined Deuskar 66 (47) as the Cows continued the good momentum and finished the innings on 196-5 with Sami Pir 2* (2). Raju picked up the late wickets of Deuskar and Kahn, the latter on the final ball of the innings, to finish with team best figures of 3-16 off 3 overs.
‘Are you ready?’
Despite posting a competitive score, the Cows faced a near impossible task of defending the runs after, disappointingly, only 8 Cows had arrived to play.
Paceman Fonseka bowled with plenty of fire in his belly in the opening over and ruffled the feathers of Anthony Van Blerk with some devilish short bowling.
Sami Pir then quickly picked up Van Blerk’s 5 (6) wicket, caught and bowled with the score at 15-1 after 1.5 overs to bring in the hard hitting and in form #3 Rishi Sadarangani to join his cousin at the crease.
The Sadarangani’s put together an 89-run partnership in no time, thanks largely in part to a diabolical Flowers over which went for 26 and included 7 wides and a no-ball.
After Rishi smacked Sameer Kahn for a second consecutive six in the tenth over and the balls were being retrieved from the cow paddock, Captain Ninan made an inspired wicket keeper change.
Flowers was put in as keeper with Rishi 54 (28) soon goading him with the comment, “Are you ready?”, before proceeding to immediately hole out to Sami Pir at long off as he attempted a third six.
The very next ball, with Fonseka returning to the attack after his stint keeping wicket, he bowled Manish 20 (29) with a fast inswinger getting through his excellent defense leaving new batsman Seemant Raju to defend out the entirety of the over as Fonseka attacked the stumps rather than the body.
With two wickets in two balls and new batsmen at the crease there was excitement yet still little real hope as Craig ‘Pancake’ Morgan fresh off his unbeaten century in game 2 was in the middle again.
After hitting a six off his first delivery from Kahn, Morgan 6 (3) was beaten with an excellent full ball outside off stump. For the following ball Kahn repeated the formula and found the edge with Flowers holding on to the important chance standing up at the stumps. Suddenly the excitable Cows had belief for the first time but the Penguins still had batting to come and had the required rate well under control.
Shilash Sharma 14 (24) joined Raju in the middle and the two put a partnership of 28 together before Sharma was stumped by Flowers from the bowling of Michael Rhys Thomas (MRT) with the score now reading 139-5.
The young Sachdeva 0 (1) was the next to the wicket but lasted just one ball as he slashed it to Pir at fly slip, for MRTs second wicket. The score 139-6 after 17 overs.
The reliable Curt Livermore was the next in and looked in good touch combining with Raju for 37 runs and putting the Penguins within reach of the 197-run target. Unfortunately for Livermore 15 (8), he slashed at quick, wide Deuskar ball, finding the edge and then the gloves of Flowers taking his third wicket keeping dismissal for the match. A disgusted Livermore trudged off the field knowing that the he would had no further baring on the outcome of the match.
Robertson 5 (5), well regarded for his batting, came in a #9 but couldn’t see out Fonseka’s final over as he came up with another peach of a delivery to send leg stump crashing down.
Kotwale, no mug with that bat, came in as the final wicket and managed to get through the next 5 balls from Fonseka who finished with a wicket maiden and his final 25 balls remarkably going for just 4 runs, with 2 wickets.
After 8 runs from the penultimate over, the Penguins needed just 3 to win from the final over of the match. A single from the first ball of the Deuskar over to Kotwale 2 (7) brought Raju 35* (39) on strike with 2 to win from 5 balls.
Raju hit the ball to Kahn at cover with Kotwale at the non-strikers end setting off for the run only to be sent back to watch Deuskar remove the bails for the most unlikely, thrilling, 1-run victory going to the Cows!
Cows Captain Ninan was judged to be the MVP by the scoring application for his batting performance slightly ahead of an equally worthy Deuskar. Fonseka’s incredible fast bowling performance was also highly notable.
The Cows now lead the 6-game PenCow Cup 2-1.