vs The Banzai Charge 10/18 at 3:30 pm and vs Company 10/31 at 7:45 am

Vs The Banzai Charge 10/18 at 3:30 pm:

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The Banzai Charge (TBC) batted first and it was a familiar story, Yasser bowled one of the openers in the first over of the game, soon Shafqat at the other end bowled the other open the next over and wickets began to fall - left, right and center, one of their batsmen who went onto score 29 runs was out twice very clearly (both caught by me behind the wickets), but the umpire (from The Boss) thought otherwise - I think he was partly blind (sorry bud I had to say this), otherwise how would he can't give those out, those were big deflections, anyways this was the primary reason the TBC's went onto score 50 runs in 15.3 and they were all out. Nazeer and Yasser took two wickets and Mushtaq, Suhail and Shafqat one each. Faheed did well at deep mid-wicket to take two good catches and saved some boundaries.

Chasing 51 to win this should've been a walk in the park for us, but guess what we basically suck at chasing targets - that has been the case this season at least, we should have chased this down in may be 2 or 3 wickets down max, but we lost 4 wickets. Muneer and Faheed opened and started off well by playing aggressively, just when they looked set they threw it away, Faheed fell caught behind and I went in next to accompany Muneer, but Muneer holed out soon at long off for the umpteenth time - Muneer are you listening? Shafqat joined me next in the middle and we took the score close to the target, when it was hardly a few runs to get I threw it away, got out to a bad shot, it was full on the body close to the waist and I closed the face of the bat too soon and it took the edge for the ball to balloon up and the keeper made no mistake - Duh!. Mushtaq went in next and soon was bowled trying to flick to a ball on the leg stump and there we go again .. but Suhail and Shafqat made sure we didn't lose any more wickets and scored the remaining few runs, we chased it down at the end in 10.5 overs.

This should've been an easy win but we would like to do it this way, don't we guys? :-)

Vs Company 10/31 at 7:45 am:

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Our last preliminary game before the semis, we were supposed to play this game at MS #6, but due to a scheduling issue we decided to play at the Sammamish HS Grounds in Bellevue where we regularly practice. Company agreed to this and we started at 8:30 pm, we won the toss and elected to bat. Muneer and Adeel opened the innings, the team wanted to give Adeel a chance since he hasn't batted in any of the games he played for us. Faheed and Sumit did not play this game. We had Shuja and Adeel in place of them.

Muneer began in his usual fashion, and played some good shots all around, Adeel fell after scoring 2 runs caught behind, Muneer followed suit in similar fashion after making 14 runs. Nazeer and Mushtaq were now in the middle, Nazeer soon fell mistiming a straight drive and holed out to long-on (a very rare shot by Nazeer, he generally plays along the ground). I went in next, I felt the ball was coming onto the bat very nicely, there was a lot of moisture on the ground and it helped the bowlers, it was also good for batting, I got one on the middle and off-stump that I hit flat and over long-off for a six, soon in the next over I put one over the bowler's head (more straighter this time) and to the right and over the long-off fielder for another six, I gave it more power and elevation this time. I enjoyed playing both these shots. Mushtaq on the other hand played very intelligently milking it for singles and twos and showed great temperament, both of us brought the score into the 70s, I looked set for a big score and wanted to stay till the end, but I tried to flick one for a single and the keeper moved quickly to his left and did well to hold the catch, it was the faintest of edges. I made 21. Shafqat joined Mushtaq but soon fell for 2 runs, Suhail and Mushtaq then took us through the slog overs and Suhail did really well to blast a boundary in the last over, we were all out for 97 runs off 15.5 overs. Mushtaq made 31 and was run out - Splendid Innings!

Company needed 98 runs to win, but they really didn't look like they would get anywhere close from ball one, wickets began to tumble, thanks to some fine bowling from all our bowlers, the one that stands out to me was a super-fast in-swinging delivery from Suhail, the batsman Nitin had no clue and before he could even raise his bat to play the ball his stumps were rattled - top-class delivery. There were also some good outfield catches, Muneer's catch behind the wickets off Mushtaq, Mushtaq's catch at cover off Nazeer and Adeel's catch at deep square leg off Shafqat.

Shafqat got two good wickets, Nazeer, Mushtaq, Shuja and Suhail took one each.

Company were all out for a meagre 36 runs off 12.1 overs.

Onto the semis!

GO SARFAROSH!