Wickets in plenty: Coast Super Kings, Masai Mara Tuskers yet to lose in Samsung Cup

Coast Super Kings and Masai Mara Tuskers achieved their second straight victories after winning respective matches in Samsung Cup cricket tournament at Nairobi Gymkhana yesterday.

Super Kings defeated Mount Kenya Chargers by eight wickets while Masai Mara also overcame Rift Valley Challengers by same scores to remain unbeaten in the tournament and inch closer to the semi-finals of the competition that presented by South Indian Cultural Society (SICS).

In the first match, Mt Kenya under the captaincy of Thota Sreenivas were the first to bat and set a winning target of 138-10 in 24.2 overs in the first innings.

Abraham Vadada was the lone ranger in the Mt Kenya Chargers team as his 76-ball 96 runs were all in vain as he did not get any meaningful support from teammates.

batted carefully

Vadada batted carefully until when he was caught by Praveen Kumar off Venkata Suresh ball at 131-7 in the 23rd over.

Mt Kenya Chargers batting order was in shambolic form as besides Vadada, four batters recorded single digits while the rest returned to the pavilion with noughts against their names.

Sreenivas managed a paltry seven runs before he was caught by Hariharan Ramakrishnan off Venkata Suresh ball after facing 21 deliveries.

Ramesh Bora recorded two runs off nine balls while Prashant Srinivas and Suresh Mohan managed one run each.

Vikram Thampy, Lokesh Anand, Rahul Srivasta and Satish Yanora were on nought at the end of the first innings.

In bowling, Arun Balaraman starred for Coast Super Kings as he claimed two wickets for 15 runs, while Praveen Rao was 1-30.

Coast Super Kings batted carefully to achieve the winning target at 142-2 in 24.2 overs.

Opening batsman Anand Ranganathan scored a quick fire 21 runs including three boundaries and one six after facing 14 deliveries before he was caught by Prakash Balagala off Sreenivas ball.

Praveen Kumar led Coast Super Stars onslaught with a deserved 56 runs off 63 balls before he was stamped by Vadada off Srivasta bowling.

Other meaningful contributions for Coast Super Kings came from Rao who managed 24 runs off 28 balls and Balaraman’s 41-ball 30.

In bowling, Sreenivas was 1-30 in five overs while Srivasta was 1-8 in three overs.

This was second victory for Coast Super Kings after they defeated Rift Valley Challengers by 45 runs in their first match of the tournament that was played the previous day.

During the match, Coast Super Kings who were the first to bat recorded 171-6 in allotted 25 overs with Praven Kumar scoring a brave 43-ball 58 that included seven boundaries and a six, while Hariharan (33) and Ritesh Pamnani contributed one-ball one-run 18.

In Rift Valley Chargers bowling, Lokesh Venkant was 2-32, Santosh Gore 2-34 and Varghese Zakaria 2-28. In second innings, Rift Valley Challengers replied through Pramod Shetty (33) and Zakaria (23). In Coast Super Kings bowling, Rao was 2-18 and Venkata Suresh 2-24.

In the second match yesterday, Rift Valley Challengers who were the first to bat were 130-6 in maximum overs with meaningful scores coming from Pramod Shetty (36), Jobin Varghese (32 not out), Tilak Nagrat (16) and Sunil Peter Joseph (15).